A very successful public meeting in St Andrew’s Church Stoke-in-teignhead; resolved to set up a co-operative to re-open the shop and post office. The village shop closed in August, after the post office cut the branch.The key purpose of the meeting was to gauge public support for the shop – without that support the scheme is doomed to failure. Stuart Travis and many others have done a brilliant job getting thing to this stage. Villagers can join the co-op for £5, however to raise the necessary capital, villagers who can afford it are being asked for £100. There is still a lot of hard work to be done, before the community shop (hopefully with a post office) can open.
The Community shop would employ a paid part-time manager, however much of the extra work – keeping the shop open for longer hours, – would be done by village volunteers. As a Co-operative Society villagers who join would be able to elect a committee and help to plan and decide what the shop should stock, procuring interesting extra goods and services which would be sold in the shop. I'm working on finding organisations to help with grants and advice.
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