A POPULAR garden centre and café in Gillingham has closed.
The Employ My Ability (EMA) charity – which runs the Thorngrove Garden Centre and café – said it has made the decision, with doors closing on Wednesday (October 23).
“Today we are sharing an important update about changes to the EMA Gillingham Campus,” a spokesperson said.
“The on-site garden centre and café are now closed to the public.”
They said the site would now be repurposed, focussing on the adult social care and educational services.
“The closure of the garden centre and café allows us to make positive improvements and focus on developing the Gillingham Campus by repurposing these commercial spaces to better serve both our educational and adult social care services,” the spokesperson went on.
“Part of these plans includes making use of the café environment and kitchen to enhance our hospitality courses and provide greater learning opportunities for our students and adult social care attendees, setting them up for a better pathway into the community and employment.”
However, the move would mean the loss of the garden centre and café t the public.
“We would like to extend a sincere thank you to all members of the public who supported the café and garden centre over the years,” the spokesperson added.
“We hope you continue to support our mission in providing an enriching learning environment for young people, and adults.
“All staff, parents and carers have been notified of these changes.”
That’s a good cause but those huge greenhouses could well be used to provide food for the community of mostly pensioners which have no bus service and have to rely on expensive delivery services
Such a shame, and very odd!!!
How can you teach hospitality courses when there are no customers to “practice” on. Surely you need customers on which to hone their skills?
Very unhappy, this was an asset to our community. For me it was a place to escape to at this end of Gillingham. A short walk and I was in the world again not shut in on my own.
Lovely plants, lovely food, shop and people to communicate with.
So you see it was more to people like me than just a cafe and plants! It was doing a service to o people that needed social support.
It was such a lovely place to get plants and have a coffee and you felt you were also providing support in your own way. A big loss to all involved and the general public. It’s a sad day and I for one am very sorry to see it go.
The facts are it needs more support from dorset council and from people in shaftesbury Gillingham and surrounding area they did so much good for the people they helped this is where more help should be given it gives the people a reason and a purpose
King Kevin is right. We have lost our Saturday CR02 bus service. We don’t have a Sunday bus service either. There are many pensioners that loved Thorngrove and the cafe there and decisions have been made without consulting them or any other customers for that matter. It is better to allow those in the Social Mobility project to mix with the public and Thorngrove provided this.
Bizarre and illogical decision with next to no notice. Surely the customers enhance the learning experience whilst benefitting from a valuable local amenity
I’m.so sad to hear this.my family and I loved visiting Thorngrove over the years.
I just hope it can be kept going for educational.purposes to help those in our community. A very valuable asset.