People from a North East village have taken to social media to complain after a local butcher's shop has shut without notice, potentially leaving customers short-changed and without food for their Christmas dinner.
Villagers from Easington Colliery on the County Durham coast were shocked earlier this week to see a notice posted by bailiffs to the shutters of Whitwell's butchers after many of them had been paying the shop by installments over the past year to help ease the burden of costs at Christmas.
A notice was posted to the shutters of Whitwells butchers on Seaside Lane on Tuesday evening by bailiffs intending to take control of goods at the property as the result of a High Court order to recover debts.
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It's thought that up to 150 customers had paid in installments in advance over the last few months for meat and hampers for the Christmas period in amounts varying from £20 to nearly £200. Many who commented on Facebook said that they'd paid at least £50 to the butchers.
There are also other customers who had placed orders separately who hadn't paid in installments and who are left potentially out of pocket and without food for Christmas day.
The shop shut at short notice, with many people posting saying that they had paid for orders in advance as late as Monday before the notice was served on the shop.
Since then, the butcher has not responded to any phone calls or messages, leaving people in the village unsure of what's happened to their money, or if they need to make alternative arrangements for their Christmas dinners.
Callum Williams, who lives on the Coppice estate in the village, told The Northern Echo that his mother-in-law had paid more than £100 in advance in installments and that they're unsure of what will happen.
"It's a very deprived area," he said, "one elderly lady that I know of had been paying in £2 a week because it's all she could afford. I'm really concerned about elderly people who aren't on social media who will be turning up to collect orders that they've already paid for."
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Easington Colliery was home to the last coal mine to close in County Durham, which resulted in the loss of 1,400 jobs in 1993. It was later used as the location for filming Billy Elliot - standing in as the fictional village of Everington.
Whitwells did not respond to The Northern Echo's requests for comment.
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