Two years after the last shop closed, the residents of two small villages near Bath now have a purpose-built, community-owned shop and café building developed with support from the Village CORE Programme.
The grand opening of the Galleries Shop & Café, owned by the Freshford and Limpley Stoke Community Association took place on 12th September with Midge Ure, Ultravox frontman, cutting the ribbon.
The closure of the two village shops, in 2004 and 2007, meant that the residents of Freshford and Limpley Stoke had to travel over three miles to reach the nearest small shop and five miles to the nearest supermarket, and so in 2006 they decided to try to open a new community shop and café.
After much deliberation about location, it was agreed that a new timber-framed building would be constructed immediately adjacent to Freshford Village Hall which is centrally located for both villages. At the request of the community, the new store was designed to incorporate a range of energy-saving features. As well as a small indoor café and outdoor patio area, the building includes a village shop stocking a wide-range of goods, with emphasis on local sources, healthy living, and minimising waste. It will also offer services including dry-cleaning and has Post Office services on two days a week.
Speaking about the impact the new village store project has had on the community, Gitte Dawson, Chair and Secretary of the village Steering Group says: "Even before opening for business, our shop-to-be revitalised the community. The Galleries Shop and Café will be a key social focal point for our villages. It will offer a support network for those unable to travel to remote shops or even leave their homes, and promises to unite residents in one common purpose. Many have donated generously to the project or helped in practical ways with shelf-building and DIY. Over fifty residents have agreed to volunteer in the shop and 100 families have committed to a certain amount of spending per month!”
Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation commented, “Community ownership is often the only viable solution for rural communities looking to save or reintroduce a vital service such as a shop. The Galleries Shop and Café is the latest to open in a record year for community-owned shops. It is great to see what has been achieved by the villages of Freshford and Limpley Stoke by their communities working together.”
The Galleries Shop & Café is one of over 210 community-owned shops in the UK and is the latest to open following support from the Village CORE Programme - a partnership by the Plunkett Foundation, Co-operative & Community Finance and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The Village CORE Programme provides a funding package and support for rural communities looking to set up and run a community-owned shop.
For more information about Village CORE, visit http://www.plunkett.co.uk/whatwedo/rcs/ruralcommunityshops.cfm
For press enquiries contact Mike Perry at the Plunkett Foundation on 01993 810730 or email mike.perry@plunkett.co.uk
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NOTES TO EDITORS
The Village CORE Programme (www.plunkett.co.uk/whatwedo/core/Core.cfm)
is a dedicated support programme for rural communities looking to set up a community-owned shop managed by the Plunkett Foundation in partnership with the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk) and Co-operative and Community Finance (www.co-opandcommunityfinance.coop). It provides financial start-up packages and advisory support to communities looking to set up a community-owned rural shop.
The Plunkett Foundation (www.plunkett.co.uk) is a national organisation based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire that is dedicated to improving rural livelihoods through co-operative and social enterprise. The Plunkett Foundation works with other organisations that share its aims of helping rural communities respond to challenges to jobs, services and community vitality. Community-owned shops are one example of the growing number of rural social enterprises in the UK. A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community. The Plunkett Foundation supports rural communities wanting to set up and run a community-owned shop, providing practical assistance through a network of community retail advisers, its website, various publications and a national office. In 2009 the Plunkett Foundation is celebrating 90 years of helping rural people to believe in what they can achieve together.
The Plunkett Foundation works with the Office of the Third Sector (www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector.aspx) to promote the role that social enterprise can play in rural communities in England. As part of the Cabinet Office, the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) leads work across government to support the environment for a thriving third sector (voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, charities, cooperatives and mutuals), enabling the sector to campaign for change, deliver public services, promote social enterprise and strengthen communities. The OTS was created at the centre of government in May 2006 in recognition of the increasingly important role the third sector plays in both society and the economy.
Co-operative & Community Finance (www.co-opandcommunityfinance.coop) provides sympathetic loan finance to help people take control of their economic lives and create social benefit. They exclusively serve the co-operative and social enterprise sector, and over 36 years they have supported hundreds of businesses ranging from small community-run enterprises to large award-winning organisations.
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk) is one of the largest independent grant-making foundations in the UK. It aims to improve the quality of life throughout the UK. It does this by funding the charitable activities of organisations that have the ideas and ability to achieve change for the better. The Foundation takes pride in supporting work that might otherwise be considered difficult to fund. Esmée Fairbairn’s primary interests are in the UK's cultural life, education and learning, the natural environment and enabling people who are disadvantaged to participate more fully in society. In 2009 the Foundation expects to make grants of approximately £25 million across the UK.