A charity serving hundreds of vulnerable shoppers in East Kilbride today has revealed it has taken the "difficult" decision to suspend the town's vital Shopmobility service.
Health and Active East Kilbride (formerly Older and Active in East Kilbride) told Lanarkshire Live the future of the service is uncertain due to a lack of funding.
EK, East Kilbride, where the charity is based, has not yet had its budget confirmed for this financial year leaving the service "unsustainable" for the charity which been self-funding Shopmobility for several weeks.
The Shopmobility service was suspended from 4pm on Sunday, May 1.
Charity director Lesley MacIntryre told us : "As town centre management have not yet had their budget confirmed for this financial year, Healthy and Active East Kilbride - in the interests of those vulnerable people who use Shopmobility - has been funding the service in full since the end of financial year 2021/22.
"The current situation is of course not sustainable for a charity such as ours and we are working closely with town centre management in the hope that a solution can be reached without further delay.
"The charity has a duty to make sure that we protect our other services, which are unaffected and continue as normal.
"Unfortunately as we have yet to have funding in place, we have had to make the decision to suspend the service from Sunday, May 1 at 4pm.
"This was a difficult and emotional decision for the directors of the charity, and we will re-open as soon as we have guarantees of funding in place."
Working from two sites in the town centre (Centre West and the Hub/Olympia), Healthy and Active East Kilbride originally launched as East Kilbride and District Shopmobility in 2003.
A programme of mental health support is just one strand of a suite of services that, combined, are used over 40,000 times a year.
The charitable service is run by staff and volunteers, and offers manual and powered wheelchairs and scooters on loan to members of the public with limited mobility.
There is a minibus collection and pick up service available to registered users from Monday to Friday.
They also have kiddy cabs for small children, a minibus service and The Meeting Place community hub.
Building on the foundation Shopmobility facility, the Meeting Place was introduced in 2012.
Over the years this important community hub/cafe has grown to become a lifeline service for thousands of ageing and disabled service users, who, prior to the coronavirus situation, would regularly meet up for a coffee and the chance to share stories with friends.
The Meeting Place also offers a range of complementary services, including arts and crafts, IT classes and games sessions.
A range of health and wellbeing services have also proved extremely popular over the years with tai chi, health walks, self-management courses, complementary therapies, podiatry, physio and acupuncture on offer.
A spokesman for EK, East Kilbride told us : "We fully understand the difficulties faced by the Shopmobility service.
"The past few years have been extremely difficult for the charity sector, as they have been for the retail industry and town centres across the country.
"These are unprecedented times and we are working hard to support the local community where we can.
"There are a huge number of pressures on the centre's finances, however, we are pushing hard to find a solution whereby we can continue to offer a degree of funding to support Healthy and Active as they continue to look for additional sources of finance.
"It is unfortunate that Healthy and Active has had to fund the service from its reserves for a few weeks, however, we have assured the charity that we are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."
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