Elgin Darby and Joan Club bids emotional farewell to Elgin Community Centre after 51 years of weekly gatherings
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AN Elgin social club has bid farewell to Elgin Community Centre after 51 years at the venue.
The Darby and Joan Club moved into the community centre for its weekly gatherings in 1972.
However, on Tuesday (October 17) the club held its final gathering there after being informed by Moray Council, like other users of the facility, that the centre will close in 2024.
The group has secured its future and will now meet at the Seaforth Club in Elgin.
But despite finding a new home, Moira Webb, who has served as club president for 30 years, says leaving the centre was a "sad day".
She said: "It will be very sad to move out but we were fortunate to be offered a room in the Seaforth Club so we're looking forward to many more happy years together.
"It was pure luck though. I was phoning up the president there to book him to come and sing and he asked if we had found anywhere yet.
"I said no and he offered us the Seaforth Cub on the phone.
"If that had not happened we don't know where we would have gone."
The community centre served as the perfect venue for the group, which consists primarily of elderly people, for over half a century.
It offered ample parking adjacent to the building and is located next to a quiet road which allowed members to be dropped off and picked up with ease.
But the group says that once they were informed that it would close they were not offered any support from Moray Council to find an alternative venue.
The same goes for some of the crafting groups, which many of the Darby and Joan Club members attend, which also use the centre.
Veronica MacLennan, who has attended the group for 10 years, says no longer having access to the community centre is a blow for elderly people in Moray.
"It's a hub for the community," she said. "Everyone can see that and everybody enjoys it and have done so for years.
"We hear so much about old people being stuck inside over the winter months and the impact that can have on their mental health.
"And it's not just the Joan and Darby Club that's been displaced. It's the sewing club and the knitting club and they haven't been able to find a new venue yet.
"It just seems like taking the centre away means there is nothing for these people any more.
"What are they doing for the old people of Elgin?
"Nothing it would seem and that's the big point. It just feels like since it's old people, it doesn't matter."
Moray Council proposed alternative venues for the knitting and sewing clubs to use earlier this year.
However, the groups said each recommendation was unsuitable with a lack of storage space for equipment and poor lighting proving particularly problematic.
And in one venue the only water source was from a toilet sink.
Community centre groups will have until March 31 next year, when the facility will no longer be a council service, to find alternative venues.
"A town the size of Elgin should have a community centre," Ms MacLennan added.
"It's just so sad to see it go."
