MORE?than 100 residents of Roadwater and the surrounding area filled the village hall last week to hear plans to buy the village shop, turn it into a community business and launch a share offer next month.
The meeting, organised by the Roadwater Community Shop Steering Group – Rob Wetheridge, Ann Bernard, Cherry Bird, Simon Smith and Mary Coles – heard that, following the death in 2015 of shop-owner Brian Knight, villagers rallied round to keep the shop open.
A core team of paid staff and over 40 volunteers have worked for two years to continue Brian’s success in providing an essential service to the village and making it pay enough to cover the monthly rent, wages and other bills.
Now, having gained their retail experience, villagers are looking to buy the shop outright as an essential community asset and are looking for support to help them raise the funds they need.
Rob Wetheridge, chairman of the steering group, said: “Now is the right time for all of us to move forward. While we have managed to provide an excellent service, improvements are needed if we want the shop to continue to be successful.
“For this we need full control backed by local investment and, hopefully, support from community grants to help us turn our ideas into reality. The excellent turnout at our meeting shows just how important our local shop is to our village.”
He added that the range of produce on sale has increased and includes many locally farmed and produced items.