MYSTERY surrounds the future of one of the region’s largest event venues.
The Weensland Function Suite in Hawick, which can cater for up to 220 people, has shut up shop, leaving staff jobless and members of the public who have booked celebrations, including wedding receptions, scrambling around for alternative locations.
The glittering annual ball of Hawick’s two Masonic Lodges was due to be held at the converted mill next Saturday.
“We had no idea the place was about to close until last week and we have been very lucky in switching the event at the 11th hour to the town’s Burns Club on the same evening,” said a spokesman for the organisers. “We were also lucky that we did not lodge a deposit for the hire of the premises.”
Not so lucky, however, was a woman who contacted our sister paper, The Hawick News, to say she had her wedding booked at the venue for May 5. Although she, too, had managed to secure another venue for her big day – Hawick Rugby Club – she claims to have lost her £250 deposit.
Local people who were employed at the venue, thought to be run by a company called Tregus, are understood to be angry at the manner of the venue’s abrupt closure.
Attempts to contact management have failed, with the telephone number at the venue ringing out and a contact number held by our advertising department conveying the message that the number is currently unavailable.
Freetext messages have gone unanswered, while the Weensland Function Suite website offers no explanation of what has occurred, only providing details of a string quartet from Newcastle.
TheSouthern has learned, however, that the premises, close to the River Teviot to the east of the town, are being advertised for sale, with no asking price specified, by an Edinburgh-based firm of solicitors.