The newly formed Community Shop Steering Group has been busy over the summer exploring the possibilities and options for a Community Shop in the village. Based on the questionnaire results, we now know that the most favoured location for the Community shop is the Parish Hall. We have identified a potential container unit for the shop building and we have also met with the Parish Hall Committee to talk about eactly where and how a Community shop could be established.
An adviser from The Plunkett Foundation, the charity organisation who help communities to set up their community shops, attended one of our meetings and needless to say there is a lot of detail to take into account as we develop a firm Business plan and this includes looking carefully at the various set up work and costs required.
We have also identified a number of Funds that we can apply to for finances and have started to submit applications, as well as talking to the Parish Council about the possibility of a financial contribution as the plans become clearer.
The Steering Group is meeting every few weeks to keep the momentum going with the plans and we anticipate having some further news and update to share with the Village in the early Autumn on the outcome of our work, at which stage we will also be following up on the financial pledges given from the community in the questionnaires.