A NEW shares offering is being launched for a West Somerset village shop to make its long-term future more secure.

The Wootton Courtenay Villagers’ Stores was bought for the community more than 30 years ago after residents raised the equivalent in today’s money of at least £250,000.

Now, the shop’s board of directors has to pay back the money it was loaned and also needs to raise funds to carry out essential repairs and upgrading work to comply with current regulations and put the company on a sound footing.

So, the directors have decided to release up to 240 shares for sale to raise the money they need, with the shareholdings available for anybody who is interested, not just existing shareholders.

Current tenants Sarah Fox and Mark Burgess took over the store earlier this year when Andy Giles stepped down after more than four years of running it.

Shop director Barbara O’Keefe said: “The original investors have given us this wonderful facility, now we need to ensure that it is preserved for years to come.

“The reason that we are in this enviable position is that a group of villagers raised a staggering amount of money in order to buy the shop.

“This was achieved by setting up a limited company and asking villagers to buy shares.

“A succession of tenants have expanded and improved the shop and the services offered, but in recent years a seamless transfer of the business from one tenant to another has become increasingly difficult, with a risk of closure and a risk of losing our ‘Post Office Community Status’.

“The board concluded the only way of protecting the shop from closure and potential loss of the Post Office was to buy back the business and restructure the company so that the shop could be re-let on terms which are much less risky for us and less risky for the tenants.”

Ms O’Keefe said Wootton Courtenay was probably one of the smallest villages in England to have a shop which was open on seven days a week, a Post Office opening on five days a week, a café with a garden, a licensed bar, and a prescription collection service.

She said: “We must be the envy of many larger villages on Exmoor who have ‘lost’ their village store and Post Office.

“We know that having a village shop is a major attraction to buyers when properties come on the market.”

Anybody who wants to know how they can help should email Ms O’Keefe at [email protected] and say ‘Village shop, more information please’, or call in to the store and collect an envelope marked ‘Securing our Future’.

Ms O’Keefe said any board member would also be happy to answer questions, the others being Rob Billson, Dee Binnie, Mike Izaby-White, and Kate McKenzie.