Plunkett Foundation News

The Plunkett Foundation is pleased to announce that The LankellyChase Foundation is working with the Plunkett Foundation and its partners in supporting the development of community-owned village shops.The LankellyChase Foundation is an endowed grant making Charitable Trust which works to promote positive social change and aims to improve the quality of people’s lives, has begun providing support for the Village CORE Programme. The programme is a support programme which has enabled 48 new community-owned village shops to open over the last four years.Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation, said, “We are delighted that The LankellyChase Foundation has joined...

Market Overton, a village in Rutland, celebrated the re-opening of their village shop as a community-owned enterprise on Saturday 15 May.The community-owned shop, the latest to open following support of the Village CORE Programme, opened just sixteen weeks after the previous shop owners announced that they were closing the shop.Andy Cleverdon, Chair of the committee which oversaw the shop development said, “After a crazy 16 weeks we think we've pulled off an amazing feat. When the old shop shut no-one really knew what would happen but the whole village rose to the challenge and with the fantastic funding support from...

See the latest Plunkett Weekly News (download pdf.) for: Plunkett NewsPlunkett Perspective on the latest Local Food and Climate Change Report Co-operatives and Social EnterpriseCommunity Groups Set to Lose out in Asset TransferCommunity Awards from Kerrygold!Social Entrepreneurs Called Upon to Defend Civil SocietySocial Enterprise: Must Stay Vigilant Says the SEC Farming and FoodShoppers Not Responding to Climate ChangeUN Policy of Doubling Food Production on 'Flawed Data.'Scholarship to Fight Poultry Skills Shortage Rural DevelopmentAmerican Bank to Target Disgruntled Rural CustomersCRC Look into Mobile Phone CoverageWinners Announced of BBC's Village SOSSouth West RDA Invests £50k to First 3D Testing SystemEconomic Impact of the NWDA 1999-2009 Published International NewsOnline...

This week in the Plunkett Weekly News (download pdf):Plunkett Foundation news:Archers community-owned shop to open on June 2New report says community food enterprises up to the challenge of climate changeCo-operatives and Social Enterprise news:Social enterprises and co-operatives shortlisted for Observer Ethical AwardsSupporters Direct Annual Conference: ‘Join the Debate’ – 12 to 13 June 2010, LondonNew partnership offers support for affordable homes in Somerset and DorsetFarming and Food news:Buying groups unite for dairy farmersFirst Milk appoint new Chief ExecutiveEU farm leaders call for more co-op powerRural Development news:Broadband boost for remote villagesRCAN Fieldworks Conference 2010, 8th-9th June, YorkEnvironmental technology shaping tomorrow’s...

Ambridge, the fictional home of The Archers, will be celebrating next month with the announcement that their new community-owned shop will open its doors on 2 June.In October listeners heard how the only shop in Ambridge was threatened with closure after the owners decided to sell up. As it is the only shop in the community, villagers reacted with shock and concern at the decline of this vital community service which provides so much to so many people in the community.  Since then, The Archers have taken their 800,000 daily listeners through the process of a community coming together to...

Community food enterprises can play a role in helping to tackle the challenge of climate change through empowering local people and communities to take action.  This is the main message from a new report launched this week [Wednesday 5th May] at a major national conference in Manchester.The report ‘Local food and climate change – the role of community food enterprises ’ identified the potential for communities on a local level across England to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in every part of the food chain, including transport.Peter Couchman, Director of Making Local Food Work and Chief Executive of...

The Plunkett Foundation made it's fourth appearance on The Archers last night (Wednesday 28th May).Ambridge, the fictional local for The Archer, is setting up a community-owned shop to save their village shop which has been threatened with closure.Like many other communities in this situation, the community turned to the Plunkett Foundation and our dedicated support programme for community-owned shops, The Village CORE Programme.  This programme has opened 48 new community-owned shops over the past four years.You can listen again to the programme by following the link below (it is around 7.30 minutes into the programme).http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s2pbn/The_Archers_28_04_2010/

For up-to-date information on Co-operatives and Social Enterprise, Farming and Food, Rural Development and International see the latest Plunkett Weekly News.

PRESS RELEASE: SUPPORT FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES TO SET UP COMMUNITY-OWNED PUBS ANNOUNCED A new support programme has been announced to help local communities to set up and run community-owned pubs.  The support programme, led by the Plunkett Foundation, is part of a 12 point action plan announced by Pubs Minister John Healey to give practical support to community pubs up and down the country. Almost 40 pubs are closing each week leaving many communities without access to a pub.  Co-operative-ownership has been a proven success in saving village shops with record numbers opening in 2009.  Community-owned shops now save or reopen 10%...

Online network launch is the start of a new era for community-owned shopsThe launch of a new online network has been hailed as the start of a new era for community-owned village shop development in the UK.  The network, hosted by the Plunkett Foundation, enables people involved in setting up and running community-owned shops to communicate with each other, share ideas and experience across the UK and be inspired by others.The new network (www.plunkett.uk.net) was launched on Friday 12 March at Thorncombe Community-Owned Village Shop in West Dorset by Oliver Letwin MP who alongside being Thorncombe’s local MP is also...