Hope House Children’s Hospices has announced that our Wellington charity shop will not reopen when lock down restrictions on the retail sector are relaxed in England.

We have rented the shop in Crown Street, Wellington, for the past 12 years, but sales have been consistently falling in recent years to a stage where it is no longer viable.

Our Commercial Director Andrew Fergus explained: “It is with great regret that we have decided to close our charity shop in Wellington but, sadly, sales from the shop have been falling in recent years and, prior to the enforced closure due to Covid-19, were at around half the level of many of our other shops across the region.

“We are extremely grateful to our two members of staff and 16 volunteers, and to the community of Wellington for their support since we opened our doors 12 years ago.”

Andrew said that both members of staff had been offered roles in the charity’s other shops, but had opted to take redundancy. Meanwhile the hunt continues for other more accessible sites in the Telford area.

“The shop’s location in a pedestrianised area made it difficult for people to donate goods for us to sell, and increasingly we have to bring in stock from our other shops, which adds to the running costs,” he added.

“Hope House is dependent on fundraising and our shops to raise the money needed to fund our vital care and support to local terminally ill children and their families. We cannot justify continuing to run a shop that is commercially unviable.

“We are disappointed to close our only shop in the Telford area, but will continue to look for other locations that may be suitable in the future.”

Hope House Children’s Hospices has 14 other shops across Shropshire, Cheshire, North and Mid Wales. Four – Shrewsbury (Lancaster Retail Park), Oswestry, Church Stretton and Chester – will reopen on June 16. Others will reopen when safe working practices can be implemented and regulations in Wales allow.

You can find full details of our other store locations here.