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 the Village CORE Programme we now have a superb new shop. We hope we've created a 'future proofed', low carbon shop that will generate good profits for us to invest in our village. Thank you to all the villagers who have donated money, time, support and interest, we are all winners!”
Peter Couchman, Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation, said, “The opening of the new community-owned shop in Market Overton is great news for their community as through community-ownership they have saved a vital rural service which is important to their community. Rural communities across the country are setting up a variety of community-owned enterprises to save a range of vital rural services and we congratulate the hard work and determination of everyone involved in Market Overton in opening their new shop.”
Market Overton is one of 48 new community-owned shops to open following the support of the Village CORE Programme. The Village CORE Programme is a partnership between the Plunkett Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Co-operative and Community Finance and is supported by the LankellyChase Foundation. There are now 235 community-owned village shops across the UK with a record 38 new shops opening in 2009 alone.
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
The Plunkett Foundation (www.plunkett.co.uk) is a national organisation based in Woodstock, Oxfordshire that helps rural communities through community-ownership to take control of the issues important to them. The Plunkett Foundation runs a range of projects and services supporting rural communities to set up and successfully run community-owned enterprises including community-owned shops. The Plunkett Foundation hosts an online Community Shops Network (www.plunkett.uk.net) for community-owned shops to share ideas and best practice.
The Village CORE Programme (http://www.plunkett.co.uk/whatwedo/core/Core.cfm) is a three year support programme managed by the Plunkett Foundation in partnership with the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (http://www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk/) and Co-operative and Community Finance (http://www.co-opandcommunityfinance.coop/) and supported by the LankellyChase Foundation (http://www.lankellychase.org.uk/). It provides financial start-up packages and advisory support to communities looking to set up a community-owned rural shop.