- Why the Shop Project?
- People want a community shop
- Funding – and a business plan
- Buying the building
- Three alternative sites
- New build next to the Village Hall wins
- Planning application
- Fundraising
- Temporary post office above the surgery
- Forward plans for the shop
- Building has started
- We are there - picture
- Herb garden!
- Please also have a look at Village News
- Who are we?
Why the Shop Project?
The owners of the Freshford village shop and post office – having served the village faithfully for over 20 years – announced in 2007 that they wanted to sell up and retire. They actually closed the village shop and post office at the end of June 2007 and hope to sell the shop building for residential use. The Freshford Shop Project – an action group of Freshford and Limpley Stoke residents – have been working for almost three years now to explore how a community shop and post office can be set up to replace it.
A community shop would employ a paid full-time manager, but much of the extra work – keeping the shop open for longer hours, helping to plan and decide what the shop should stock, procuring interesting extra goods and services which would be sold in the shop – would be done by village volunteers.
People want a community shop
It all started with a public meeting in April 2006 in the School Hall, which was well and enthusiastically attended. You can view the presentation given that evening by clicking here.
The key purpose of the meeting was to gauge public support for the shop – without which the exercise was doomed to failure. The group asked people to commit to a certain amount of spending each month for two years - IF the community shop with post office could be made to happen, offering all the goods and services promised in the presentation.
The response was good – the Group collected commitments from 110 Freshford and Limpley Stoke households, adding up to over £5000’s spending per month. They felt that, once a realistic plan for a community shop emerged, additional commitments would be forthcoming - but this was a very promising start.
In addition to committing to a certain amount of monthly spending, residents also signed up for taking turns in minding the shop, or helping to manage it, and some offered capital contributions towards a community shop, once a promising plan was put before them.
Funding – and a business plan
The Freshford Shop Project set about looking for ways of making it all happen. They researched other community shops in the area. There’s Wellow, nearby, which has been up and running for over ten years. There’s Bathford which started up in 2006; and there are many others within reach where we have visited and collected advice and information. ViRSA, the Village Retail Shop Association, has been a useful source of information and help. The Freshford Shop Project Group published a progress report in June 2006, outlining how it might all work. This included a business plan.
The Group also identified sources of loans and grants available for this kind of project, and organised one big fundraising event, a village supper in the School Hall, which raised £1100. Others followed.
Buying the building
By May 2007, the Group still thought that buying the existing building was a good way forward. The Group had planned to purchase the PO building, split out the accommodation above the shop (a two-bedroom maisonette) and sell it off, and refurbish the ground floor and basement for the shop. This plan stalled over the asking price for the shop – which was pitched at residential use rather than shop use.
A further blow – when the closure of the shop and post office was announced in May 2007 – was being told by Post Office Ltd that, once the current post office had closed, they would only allow a very part-time post office to re-open. This had serious financial consequences for the shop’s business plan, with a major part of the sub-postmaster’s salary missing.
Given the limited size of the existing shop coupled with the difficult parking situation, the plan to keep the shop where it was had to be abandoned.
Three alternative sites
So the Freshford Shop Project explored each and every option for alternative locations in the village. They came up with three:
1 – Converting and extending the barn by Freshford Inn2 – A new timber building next to the Village Hall, in a strip of the neighbouring field, and
3 – the flat above the surgery in the surgery building, round the corner from the shop. Click here for more detail about these options.
All had planning hurdles to jump, and all would be expensive. But with full village support, the Freshford Shop Project felt a solution will be possible.
New build next to the Village Hall wins
The Freshford Shop Project displayed these options at the June 2007 Village Fete and collected comments. The new building next to the Village Hall was by far the most popular, and that is what the Group has been working towards.
The Group noted concerns expressed about any greenfield planning application setting a precedent for other, less desirable, developments and undertook to address such concerns, should the new-build option succeed.Planning application
Early plans were on view at the Parish Plan meeting on 21st November 2007 where they received full support from everyone present. An outline planning application was made in November and, thanks to vociferous report from villagers and both parish councils, granted in May 2008. A detailed application was made in August 2008 and granted in October. You can still see the plans here. It is to be a simple timber-framed building with a pantiled roof and stone-rendered walls - very well insulated and ventilated so as not to require either heating or air-conditioning. It will include a post office and also a small café. It was decided that it was to be called the Galleries Shop, after the Galleries Field in which it was to be built.
Fundraising
Grant applications went well. The Group has incorporated itself into a company, soon to be a charity, called the Freshford and Limpley Stoke Community Association (FLiSCA) which will own and run the shop. Charitable status will make best use of any donations, will ease fund-raising generally and enable us to re-invest any profits the shop might make into other community facilities, without having to pay corporation tax. But charitable status has not yet been achieved. Negotiations with the Charity Commission are continuing.
Government grants usually require evidence of match funding, and we are grateful to those in the two villages who, at very short notice and very generously, committed to certain capital contributions in the summer of 2008 to enable us to apply for a £90,000 grant from the Rural Renaissance Partnership (Government money). We also managed to obtain a £20,000 grant accompanied by a very low-interest £20,000 loan from the Plunkett Foundation's Village Core Programme. Further grant applications have been made - we are still awaiting the outcome. It may be possible to install well-screened solar panels at the top of the field to supply the shop with electricity; grants are available for such schemes and we are pursuing that possibility to keep the annual bills down. .
Temporary post office above the surgery
Meanwhile, our temporary part-time post office – established on the first floor above the surgery by kind permission of the Younghusband Trust - flourishes. It works well not only for its original PO purpose but as a social meeting point and an opportunity for marketing locally produced items. The plan is to incorporate the Post Office in the new shop when it opens.
The post office service is provided by the Hinton Charterhouse postmaster who sends us a member of staff who arrives with all the necessary equipment. We are hoping that this service will also be provided once the Galleries Shop opens for business. Remember, though, that you need to USE the Post Office or you will LOSE it! Here is a list of all the things you can do through your post office.
Volunteers are always on hand to offer coffee, tea and cakes and biscuits. Maureen Delap on 722 524 coordinates this and would love to hear from anyone willing to help, on either Tuesday or Friday morning.
Forward plans for the shop
A further public meeting was held in October, with samples of locally produced bread, cheese, wine and to cement village support for the shop. If you missed this, you can still see the progress report we circulated here. Page 2 is a questionnaire on which you can state how you may wish to be involved. Please, if you have not already, complete this and return it to the address given. We are pleased to hear from anyone new!
You can also see the presentation given at the public meeting. Many more people made capital donations at this time.
Building has started
Meanwhile, we have gone out to tender, received and evalulated four different quotes and awarded the contract to local builders Ken Biggs. Building started on Monday 19th January! It will cost £250,000 to build. The completion date is in late June, so we hope to open for business in July 2009.
But a lot of work still needs doing:
- a detailed survey will happen soon to establish exactly what residents would like to be able to buy at the shop
- charitable status for FLiSCA (the umbrella organisation owning the shop) still needs to be secured
- a management committee for the shop itself needs to be appointed and a shop manager recruited
- the shop needs to be fitted out - with counters, shelving, an electronic cash register and stock control system, fridges and freezers, a coffee machine and tables and chairs
- volunteers need signing up formally, trained, and organised into a rota that gives everyone a task that they enjoy
- a great deal of do-it-yourself work will be needed once we get closer to fitting out the shop
- our reverse credit scheme needs to be formalised (whereby shop supporters are asked to commit to a certain amount of spending per month, via a standing order to the shop which amount they can then spend as they come to the shop), and finally ...
- more funds need to be raised as our building ended up costing more than we had anticipated.
We are there - picture
The building is finished - and the shop is opening for business on Tuesday 4th August! MANY THANKS to the shop management committee and the many other practical helpers who have worked untiringly to get the shop equipped, shelved and stocked.
Herb garden!
A lovely herb garden is being created along the east side of our building - courtesy of Sonia Follows. It will not only look spectacular but will, in due course, give us fresh herbs to sell in the shop.
Please also have a look at Village News
We hope to keep this page up to date - but we don't always manage. Be sure also to check the Village News page for the most recent developments.
Who are we?
Current trustees of the Freshford and Limpley Stoke Community Association (FLiSCA) are:
Andy Barrs
Gitte Dawson
John Ager
Malcolm Shirley
Margaret Field
Nick Stevens
Orla Morrish
René Closuit
Stephen Dawson
Trevor McCurdie.
We are always keen to hear from more people willing to contribute! This does not necessarily involve attending long committee meetings. Individuals can contribute in many different informal ways. If YOU would like to help please make sure we have your details and know of your particular interests and skills.
Contact us at Hillside Farm, Church Lane, Freshford, Bath BA2 7WD
Tel 01225 722 511
Email FLiSCA0@gmail.com
Comments always appreciated.