Fairfield Farm College (FFC) in Dilton Marsh is to close the café, farm shop, and post office, which is run by the college, due to financial pressures.
FFC is a specialist college for students with learning disabilities and the college runs the facilities to give students the chance to learn customer service, catering and much more. But they said that the cost of providing these services has risen substantially in recent times.
The café and shop will stay open until Wednesday 12th July, and the post office will remain open (with reduced hours) until November.
The trust at FFC also purchased the old Duke of Wales pub in Dilton Marsh in 2021, now known as The Weavers, and this will remain open.
Vicky Dunnicliffe, CEO of FFC said, “Due to external financial pressures, we are in the difficult position of having to close the Fairfield cafe, shop, and post office. The cost of providing these services has risen substantially and has become too significant for the organisation to carry. The funding we receive is for the young people we serve, and we must now look to utilise the space we have to ensure the greatest benefit for them.
“As always, we are keen to support the local community where we can. We are required to give six months’ notice to close the post office, so we should be able to provide this service until the end of November. However, the opening times may become shorter. The outside seating and play areas, and the animal walk, will remain open.
“We hope to be able to use the shop space to continue to provide a service, potentially as an outlet for selling bread, cakes and sandwiches made by our young people, as well as market garden produce grown by young people. We may also continue to sell snacks and drinks. We could sell stamps, and we could investigate the possibility of Amazon lockers and similar parcel handling, if this would be useful.
“The Weavers is open five days a week from Wednesdays to Sundays. We can look to extend the opening times to Monday and Tuesday if there is enough interest to make this viable. We are keen to hear any suggestions you might have in terms of developing the college outlet and The Weavers to meet your needs.”
If you would like more information of the services FFC offers, visit: https://www.ffc.ac.uk/
