DOES COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP OFFER A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR VILLAGE POST OFFICES?
The crisis facing the post office network is dominating the headlines, with 2,500 post offices due to close by 2009. Rural communities look set to bear the brunt of the closures since many village post offices run at a loss. While the economics may be hard to dispute, there’s no doubt that the post office and the village shop have a vital role to play at the heart of rural communities. ViRSA (the Village Retail Services Association, www.virsa.org) sees it as essential that the government recognises that the social fabric of village life is extremely fragile, and that rural communities must have easy and regular access to these key services.
An increasing number of villages are being forced to take matters into their own hands by setting up community-owned shops and post offices. ViRSA is spearheading this revolution and there are currently around 160 community-owned shops in England, of which approximately 60% have post offices. Community-owned shops are being set up at a rate of around 20 each year, and ViRSA’s Village CORE Programme (a new initiative in partnership with the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Cooperative and Community Finance) is providing two million pounds of start-up funding for new community-owned shops over the next three years.
Solutions will vary from location to location but community ownership is one practical way of retaining vital services in a village. The ‘formula’ of community ownership has proved to be extremely flexible –community-owned shops and post offices have been set up in locations as diverse as village halls, Portakabins and even in a second-hand mobile home – and it’s incredible what has been achieved through the sheer hard work, determination and resourcefulness of the villages involved. Community ownership is a tried and tested model that benefits the wider rural community and is a refreshingly positive story for the countryside as a whole but it should not be a substitute for the adequate provision of services by the government.
ViRSA will need time to study the government’s post office closure proposals and to see how they will work in practice for community-owned shops. We are pleased to see that the proposals recognise the social and economic role of the post office but would like to understand better how the social role will be measured and taken into account. While many communities are being extremely active in helping themselves, it is essential that the government understands the wider social issues and plays its part too.
For further details, please contact Elizabeth of Mar at ViRSA on 07870 276 375 or at elizabethofmarpr@yahoo.co.uk.
Notes to Editors:
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk) is one of the largest independent grant-making foundations in the UK. In 2005 it made grants of £29.6 million, divided between its four programmes: Arts & Heritage, Education, Environment, and Social Change: Enterprise and Independence.
Co-operative and Community Finance (www.icof.co.uk) provides loan finance for co-operatives, employee-owned businesses and social enterprises. It also manages loan funds for several other organizations providing co-operative and community finance, and is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
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