Ambridge, the village which the world’s longest running radio soap The Archers is based upon, has chosen community-ownership as the answer to saving the last shop in the community. The Plunkett Foundation supports rural communities to set up and run community-owned shops. It has worked with the show’s producers to highlight how real communities are combating village shop closures, by taking control of the very thing they are faced with losing.
Currently in Ambridge, the only shop and post office is going to close. After serious consideration at a recent Parish Council meeting, villagers decided that the best way to keep the shop open is to set up a community-owned shop joining 220 other rural communities across the UK.
Peter Couchman, Chief Executive Officer of The Plunkett Foundation says: “Community-ownership is often the only viable way of saving or reintroducing vital rural services like a village shop. The Plunkett Foundation is the first place that rural communities turn to when looking to save or reintroduce a vital service through community-ownership and we can provide the specialist advice and support needed to save or reopen a shop. We hope The Archers storyline will encourage more people in rural areas to take action.”
In the past three years, the Plunkett Foundation in partnership with the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Co-operative and Community Finance has supported 45 community-owned shops to open through the Village Core programme. Out of these a record number of 27 have opened this year proving how effective the shops are, even in the most challenging economic times.
For further information on community-ownership visit www.plunkett.co.uk.
For media enquiries, please contact Elizabeth of Mar on 07870 276 375 or elizabethofmarpr@yahoo.co.uk.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
The Plunkett Foundation (www.plunkett.co.uk) is a national organisation based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire dedicated to helping rural communities through community-ownership. 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 community-owned rural enterprises in the UK. The Plunkett Foundation supports and provides practical assistance through a network of community retail advisers, a dedicated website, various publications and a national office.
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 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.
Interviews, high resolution images and case studies of a range of community-owned rural shops are available on request.