Lockerbie Lorry Park will close down at the end of the month after the new owners decided not to keep the facility open.
The busy truck stop for cross-border drivers will shut on October 28 with the loss of its 24-hour cafe, 17 letting rooms, shop, a function suite with a licenced bar and office and shower and changing facilities.
It comes after it had been forced to close at weekends due to staff shortages and then it encountered difficulties taking on more staff when the site was put up for sale.
It has been bought by James Jones and Sons Limited, a family-owned and managed forest products company.
Staff at the park had pleaded for help in August to save the place but it will close with the loss of 24 jobs and leave lorry drivers without a place to stay.
Lockerbie Lorry Park bar manager, Lisa Twiname, said: “We are devastated at this news as we have been fighting to keep it open.
“Twenty-four jobs are going to be lost but it is not only us that we are concerned about as we can hold up to 160 lorries in the lorry park, where are they going to go now? Other lorry parks will not be able to take in the extra volume. The laybys around here are all full every night as it is.”
Reacting to the closure news on Facebook, one customer wrote: “I am sure I am speaking for all the drivers here in saying thank you very much for putting up with us and looking after us all over the years. We will miss you all and are very sad to see you go.”
Another wrote: “It will be a major blow to the haulage industry. Not many good truckstops about these days, and it’s an absolute tragedy that we are losing one of the best. Good luck to all the management and staff, thanks for the service you have provided to us the truck drivers, was always a pleasure stopping with you.”
