A PIONEERING Borders community café which supported more than 150 vulnerable people over eight years is off the menu forever after approval was granted for its conversion into a home.

The Almond Tree at 71 High Street, Hawick, closed its doors almost two years ago.

A failure to attract sufficient mature volunteers to work alongside and support the paid staff, together with spiralling costs, led to closure of the venture.

Now a planning application submitted to Scottish Borders Council (SBC) for the building’s change of use and alterations to the first and second floor to form a flat has been rubber-stamped.

An earlier planning application for the building from Wolverhampton-based DPSK Ltd, the operators of Domino’s pizza chain, to convert the vacant premises came to nothing.

In his report approving the application, SBC planning officer Stuart Small said: “The proposed development seeks to retain the existing historic fabric of the building, with no external alterations planned to the front elevation.

“The proposed external alterations to the rear only include the installation of a boiler flue and extractor fan to the roof which will not be visible from the public realm and as there are no alterations proposed to the front elevation the proposal’s impact on the conservation area will be negligible.

“As a result, the proposal will not result in any significant adverse visual harm and it will not be detrimental to the character and appearance of the Hawick Conservation Area.”

Speaking in December 2022, Jenni Green, chair of the trustees for the Almond Tree Café, expressed her pride at what it had achieved.

She said: “We were there to help vulnerable people find employment. People who did struggle to find work for various reasons, many of them social reasons, and we’ve had a lot of people who have come through the café that have been in that position.

“The café has been able to provide a family atmosphere, and within that atmosphere people have begun to recover from some of the traumas they have been through.”