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Why the Freshford Shop Project?

The owners of the Freshford village shop and post office – having served the village faithfully for over 20 years – announced last year that they want 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 some 18 months 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 feel that, once a realistic plan for a community shop emerges, additional commitments would be forthcoming - but this was a very promising start. In fact, if you wish to complete one of those forms now – You can either fill it out online, or download the form, complete it and send it to us at the address below. The form also invites you to offer other types of help.

In addition to committing to a certain amount of monthly spending, residents also signed up for taking turns in minding the shop, 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 fundraising event, a village supper in the School Hall, which raised £1100. Others will follow.

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 would have 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, the plan to keep the shop where it was had to be abandoned.

A village centre new build

Freshford Shop Project had also been looking at the possibility of a Bath developer buying the Post Office building and attached cottage as well as the surgery building, then re-arranging all those buildings and creating a new unit in the village centre, making it available not only for a good-sized shop but also the surgery, thereby providing it with the desired level access. The existing buildings would then have been sold off again for residential use.

However, this plan also failed over the asking price of the existing PO building, as well as adverse developments in construction costs. Obviously, planning permission - in the centre of the conservation area - would have been a further significant hurdle.

Freshford Shop Project felt that waiting it out was not an option. With the shop closing, they sensed that residents wanted their replacement community shop soon. They also risked just running out of steam if progress could not be made in the near future.

Three alternative sites

So the Freshford Shop Project abandoned the idea of retaining or rebuilding the village shop on the High Street and revisited all the options for alternative locations in the village. They came up with three:

1 – Converting and extending the barn by Freshford Inn

2 – 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

The 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. You can still see the application here.

Getting the Galleries Shop built

Our architect is designing a slightly smaller, rather simpler building than originally envisaged to fit within our budget. It is to be attractive, pleasant to work and shop in and environmentally sound. Final plans will be presented to residents when the detailed planning application goes in. It is to be called the Galleries Shop.

Grant applications have also been going well. The Freshford Shop project Action Group has incorporated itself into a company, soon to be a charity, called Freshford and Limpley Stoke Community Association (FLiSCA). Incorporation was required before grants could be awarded. Charitable status will make best use of any donations, 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.

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 enabled us to comply with that rule. £90,000 has been awarded to FLiSCA under the Rural Renaissance Scheme (Government money); a grant of £20,000 and a £20,000 loan at very favourable rates is also 90% certain to come our way. There are further grants we plan to apply for. 100% grants are available for solar panels and other sustainable energy features. We plan to take full advantage of them.

Temporary post office above the surgery

Post officeMeanwhile, 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.

Regrettably we are losing Ian our helpful postmaster who is moving on to new things. It would be great if someone in the village could take on the (paid) task of running the PO for the two mornings a week. The job involves picking up the PO equipment and other materials from the Hinton Charterhouse PO and delivering them back again at the end of each shift. In due course, the part-time post office will be incorporated in the Community Shop. See Village News for an advert.

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. And we also need extra helpers during the summer months, especially on Tuesday mornings.

Forward plans for the shop

Apart from the designing, obtaining detailed planning permission for and then building the shop – include:

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 members of the Freshford and Limpley Stoke Community Association (FLiSCA):

Andy Barrs
Brenda Graham
Gitte Dawson
Hugh Delap
John Ager
Malcolm Shirley
Peter King
René Closuit
Trevor McCurdie

New committee members welcome!

Contact us at Hillside Farm, Church Lane, Freshford, Bath BA2 7WD

Tel 01225 722 511

Email freshfordshop.project@gmail.com

Comments always appreciated.

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