Hillside Motors to close

A BRAE-based garage is to close next month after owner Martin Tregonning said his back problems made it impossible for him to continue running the business.

Hillside Motors will accept no new bookings as of this week, but aims to complete all the jobs on the books – before handing the premises over to the new owner next month.

Garriock Brothers confirmed that they were in negotiations to buy the premises – not the business –  but a deal has not been signed yet.

Of the company’s nine employees, four have already left Hillside Motors for new jobs, two have lined up new employment, and three are still looking for work.

Tregonning took over the Central Garage two years ago and renamed it Hillside Motors.

But severe back problems and the need for a daily 100-mile round trip have now forced Dunnrossness-based Tregonning to sell the business.

He said: “It has become increasingly difficult for me to make the trip north to Brae. It is the sort of business where you have to be there to manage it, you can’t do that remotely.

“Things were looking quite good, really, and it is definitely not the case that we were going under.

“I accepted an offer which came for me personally at the right time.”