Rent freeze to help village store survive (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Rent freeze to help village store survive

5:20pm Monday 8th February 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A STRUGGLING community post office near Winchester has received a welcome boost from villagers.

Sparsholt Post Office and Stores, which is run mainly by around 20 volunteers, has been given a one-year rent holiday — worth £1,000 — to help keep it going.

The store, which was only saved from closure a year ago, had asked Sparsholt Parish Council for a two-year break.

But Janice Whittle, the authority’s clerk, said that money was tight and councillors could only grant a 12- month reprieve, with a review pencilled in for next year.

“There was a lot of discussion,”

she said.

“Everybody wants the shop to succeed, it’s just the parish council is like every other organisation in the country, money is tight.

“Making a two-year commitment felt a bit of a leap in the dark.”

Cllr David Parker, parish council chairman, said the shop’s turnover was as good as — if not better — than it was under predecessors, Linda Scorey and Stella Neaves.

But, he added, the current regime faces higher overheads, including salaries and national insurance costs for three part-time postmasters.

Cllr Parker said: “It’s struggling, any business in the first year has great difficulty in coming up with profits.

“I’m not worried, I’m quite sure that we can make a go of it, it’s a question of getting the right balance between volunteers, persuading people to use the shop more, and keeping overheads down.”

He said the parish council had already invested £1,000 in 2008 to see whether it was viable for the community to take over the shop.

A not-for-profit association was then set up to run the store. Grants and a share issue among villagers raised the necessary finance.

Cllr Parker added: “It’s selfevident if people in the village want the shop they have got to use it and enough of them I think do.

“I’m concerned we have got a lot of work still to do. Lots of people have done a lot of work in the two years and we’re determined to keep it going.”

Stewart Wooles, a trustee of Sparsholt Village Shop Association, appealed for more volunteers to come forward.

Mr Wooles said. “We need to maintain the business within its income and a rent holiday will help us to do that particularly in the second year.

“Lots of people work very hard and times are hard, and the parish council being able to give us that rent holiday is a big help to moving us the last leg to breaking even.

“With the commitment of the community to support us and more volunteers, I expect the shop to be where it is next year and in a stronger financial position.”

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)