CILCAIN VILLAGE SHOP
At the recent public meeting in the Village Hall about the shop closure, a small number of people volunteered to explore quickly whether there was enough support amongst village residents to run a successful community-based shop, and whether this could be put in place by the closure date of next Monday 12 February. This team was much helped by the good work done by others since the shop closure was announced.
From the demonstrations of support in the public meeting, and from the responses in the returned questionnaires to which many of you have contributed, there certainly is enough goodwill and offers of support from the community to run a volunteer-based village shop, to include post office services. This will take a little time to organise to ensure success, so the shop will close as scheduled on Sunday. The aim will be to open again in the current shop premises as soon as the necessary start-up and operating arrangements have been organised.
We owe our thanks to Chris & Pete at the pub for all their work in arranging a continuation of post office services and newspapers. The post office will be available in the pub from Monday 12th. Opening times are 09.30 to 13.30 on Mondays (10.00 opening on the 12th to allow for set-up) and 13.30 to 17.00 on Wednesdays. Access will be the rear door of the pub. Newspapers that have been pre-ordered with Chris & Pete will be available on Monday 12th, 08.30 –15.00, access by the rear door.
We also owe our thanks to Kate & Simon, who have given active support to the use of the current shop premises as a future community-run shop. The closure period will allow some necessary maintenance and repair work to the premises.
The long term success of the shop will depend absolutely on the level of support given by the community – start-up funding, volunteer working, and using the shop when it opens. It will be our collective responsibility.
As part of the preparation work, those of you who have offered with financing or help with the running of the shop will be contacted: many thanks for your continued support.
If you have not yet completed a questionnaire, and would like to have your views considered, or would like to contribute in any way to the future shop, there will be questionnaire forms available at the next three Saturday cafes (10th, 17th and 24th) in the Village Hall between 14.00 and 17.00.
For those of you who have been dependent on the shop supplies, and need support with shopping during the closure period, there are volunteers to help: please call 741062 or 741112.
Please look out for progress updates on the Cilcain Village Hall web site and Facebook page, and for a further public meeting notice, and share the news.