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Forum: General Forum
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Respond to: Avebury residents open community shop in the village
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Andy B
Joined:
13-02-2001
Messages: 7001
from Surrey, UK
 OFF-Line
|  New Message Posted!2009-03-19 13:08
Residents of Avebury, Wiltshire, have opened their own community shop.
The new shop, which opened on Sunday, is run by a manager and 30 volunteers from the village.
It sells a wide range of groceries and fresh products including bread and cakes made in the village. Any profits are reinvested into the shop and local community.
Dave Scattergood, chair of Avebury Community Shop steering group, said: "We've opened at a good time - people are just coming out to play, the weather is warm, the sun is shining. We had a fantastic opening day on Sunday and we're exceeding expectations on day four. This is the first time the local community has had the chance to buy such a wide range of products in their local shop.
"We've had lots of customers from the local community but we also benefit from the tourist trade. We are the only community shop in a stone circle and the village receives over a quarter of a million tourists visit each year."
The Avebury Shop steering group, which runs the shop, was set up after the old village shop closed last April. The closure meant that people in the village had a 12-mile round-trip to their nearest grocery store.
Dave added: "Just under a year ago we were hit by a triple whammy - the local primary school, Post Office and shop all closed. There was a lot of anger and disappointment in the village and a public meeting was held. There was overwhelming support for a local shop so we set up a steering group, which has worked hard over the past nine months to get to this point.
"We struck a deal with the National Trust to rent one of their properties - Hope Cottage - for a nominal rent, which shows their commitment to the local community. We then revamped and refurbished it with new walls, floors, shelves and electrics. In less than nine weeks we turned it from a miserable shell to a fantastic community resource.
"The response from the community has been overwhelming. We've had donations from people, and we sold 250 shares for £10 each to local people. But the biggest contribution has been donations in kind, such as building a website or doing decorating, gardening, painting or other DIY jobs.
"As well as a shop where people can come and buy things, it is a focal point for the community. The shop has put the heart back into the village and it gives people a place to meet, have a chat and also serves as an information exchange for the village."
The shop has been developed with the help of the The Plunkett Foundation's Village Core Programme, a three-year support programme that provides financial and advisory support to communities looking to set up their own shop.
The programme was open for applications from rural communities that wanted to set up and run a community-owned shop, and The Plunkett Foundation was inundated with requests from rural communities throughout the country, all of whom either had no shop or faced the prospect of losing their only shop.
For more information about the Avebury shop visit http://www.aveburyshop.co.uk
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