Inverness Gym announces 'scary' temporary closure
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A popular Inverness gym has said it will be forced close over the level four pandemic, but the situation was "scary".
In a social media post, gym owners at TRAIN on Thornbush Road said it had not received support from the Scottish Government over its previous six month closure, made due to coronairus restrictions.
In a statement, a representative of TRAIN said: "Sadly due to the Scottish Government putting the whole of mainland Scotland into Level 4 conditions from Boxing Day for three weeks minimum we will be made to close our doors once again.
"As a small business who wasn’t eligible for any support or grants first time round due to loopholes in the system and shut for six months it’s hard to take and scary. We survived only because our members stuck by us and we had saved for a rainy day, if it wasn’t for those two things we wouldn’t be open still.
"We worked very hard to make our facility extremely safe and secure for members when we were able to open and spent a lot of time and effort doing so."
The statement continued: "It’s frustrating to say the least that we have to close once again and risk more loss of business at the start of the year when we had hoped the worst was over.
"It’s very easy for folk to say 'stay positive', 'there’s nothing we can do' etc and that is true, but they likely don’t have large overheads, outgoings and responsibilities like others so it’s easy for them to just close down without much worry at all.
"I’m a very patient and positive person, but it’s still frustrating, I’m not going to fake it saying it’s all peaches and roses for social media, it’s not! It can keep me up some nights, I constantly worry about the future and if we will be able to get back to where we were. Even when open we are operating at one third of what we were."
The statement continued: "I understand why this is happening, at the end of the day they’re trying to keep us safe and lower cases and deaths and I can’t argue with that.
"To any other small business who has been forced to close again Boxing Day try keep the head up and focus on getting open again January 18th all going well.
"As much as it’s a worry and frustrating I have to remain upbeat and still have to focus on the business and what we will offer while closed and that we will be open again soon enough."
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