Village Shops and Post Offices: Power to the People
On Monday night you may have watched a programme on BBC2 titled Power to the People. This programme focused on the village of Lanreath in Cornwall; a village like many others seeing the gradual erosion of services such as post office, shop, pub and school. In the context of today’s announcement from the government concerning the closure of some 2500 post offices it is right to feel concern for villages seeing further erosion of services as a result of today’s news.
The television programme focused on Lanreath’s campaign to save their village school. In the end, despite tremendous efforts and help from Tim Samuels and crew, they were unable to do so and the school will be closing. However look more closely and Lanreath successfully returned services too. The village, by harnessing yet more of its community spirit, has been able to return a post office and shop. In the last few minutes of the programme there were shots of this busy village shop and its delighted customers. What the programme didn’t say was that this was a successful example of how the community had pulled together to set up and run their own community-owned shop. The village set up an action group, run public meetings, found premises (in this case taking over the former public toilet block), secured funding and most importantly engaged the community in the project. The new enterprise opened the doors in January of this year.
Lanreath is not alone and this successful model of community ownership was highlighted today by Alistair Darling in his speech to the House of Commons.
“There are currently some 150 thriving community owned shops in the UK many of which already incorporate post offices. And it is clear from the comments received that there is widespread interest in the concept of establishing more.
The government wants to encourage more community run post offices where they are viable. We recognise that the processes can be daunting. The government will therefore work with stakeholders to ensure there is suitable advice available to interested parties and that community ownership is promoted as a possible means of maintaining pot office services where other options are not available. We will also expect Post Office Ltd to engage constructively with groups who present a viable case for community ownership in those circumstances.”
DTI: Government response to public consultation May 2007 p26-27
It is recognised that post office closures will result in some village shop closures too. Recent research by the Commission for Rural Communities confirms the co-dependancy between the post office and the village shop. In 8 out of 10 cases the rural post office is run alongside the shop. As a consequence they are concerned that a considerable number of village shops, from 560 to as many as 900, could be lost as a result of the rural post office network changes.
Faced with this decline villagers can take action and follow the lead of Lanreath and others to retain retail and post office services. The outreach option that has also been announced today can and will sit successfully within the community owned model.
ViRSA (Village Retail Services Association) is the only national organisation promoting and supporting community owned shops and post offices. A visit to the web site at www.virsa.org provides online advice, a directory of all the shops and the inspirational stories behind them as well as details of funding opportunities. ViRSA works in partnership with Rural Community Councils and has its own network of community retail advisers who will support and guide individual communities. ViRSA is working with Postwatch and Post Office Ltd to ensure that the community owned options are promoted and delivered.
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