Aberdeenshire Council has been urged to rethink the closure of a Westhill garden centre that offers employment to people with additional support needs.
Foxlane Garden Centre was ordered to close earlier this week, after council environmental health inspectors deemed the goods it sells “non-essential”.
Started 30 years ago with the express purpose of providing work opportunities for people with additional needs, Foxlane is now at risk of not reopening, owner Gordon Henderson warned.
As a market garden, plants sold are grown on site with employees tending to them.
The business also sells fruit and vegetable plants and equipment.
Before the crisis there were nine regular staff members but during lockdown only two have remained able to attend.
Mr Henderson said: “As a market garden, 75% of the plants we sell are produced on site.
“May, June and July are when we generate all our money to keep us going throughout the year.
“For the council to shut us down in Aberdeenshire, while B&Q opens in the city the next day, is a kick in the guts.
“The people we employee are now at home all the time and are under stress. And the doubt over whether we will reopen is adding to that stress.”
The father-of-one of those employed at the garden centre has now hit out at the enforced closure, claiming it risks taking his son’s “purpose in life”.
Alan Milton’s 43-year-old son, Andrew, who has Down’s Syndrome, has worked at the garden centre for more than two decades.
Foxlane offers therapeutic work through Aberdeenshire Health And Social Care Partnership and has self-funded places too for those in the city.
Mr Milton said: “This job gives him a degree of independence and gives him a sense of purpose in life.
“He has friends there too, as he has worked there for 22 years.
“Disruption of the working environment for adults like Andrew is significantly worse from a care perspective, compared to the general public, and the potential future collapse of this business would have a significantly detrimental effect on them and the social care service.”
A spokeswoman for Aberdeenshire Council said, “Under the regulations, garden centres aren’t classified as essential businesses.
“As such, we unfortunately had to ask Foxlane Garden Centre to close until the guidelines advise otherwise.
“Aberdeenshire Council is in direct contact with the business and will privately address any wider concerns they may have about staff.”