Happy new year and we hope you all had a very enjoyable and restful festive period with your families and friends.
For myself and the rest of the committee – it has been quite a busy time following the news of our successful Post Office application. We also kicked off the year with a long committee meeting on the 6th January.
I would like to share some news on our progress and what’s happening for the next few months.
The very short (TL;DR or ‘Too Long; Didn’t Read’) version is that we have a provisional purchase/transfer date of the 24th March and we are now working towards bringing the Shop and Post Office into community ownership on that date.
Post Office
Avid readers of the Weston Village News will have read about our application and interview process with the Post Office – starting with submitting our application in August and ending with our suitability assessment interview at the beginning of November. The good news is that we have been successful and since then we have been working with the Post Office to get the contracts signed, organising training and working with the Post Office and the current postmaster to agree a Post Office transfer (purchase) date.
We have currently agreed a provisional transfer/purchase date with the Post Office of the 24th March 2025, so this is the date we are now working towards to take ownership of the Shop and Post Office.
Myself and Linda also spent our New Years’ Eve competing to see who could finish their Post Office e-Learning first!
Community Ownership Fund Grant
Our Community Ownership Fund grant funding period ran for 12 months until the 31st December 2024 and things have taken longer than expected with delays in the Post Office application process so we have had to seek a grant extension. This could have been a major risk as without the extension we would have been forced to return the COF grant funding and it would have been unlikely that we’d be able to proceed with the project without considerable additional financial support.
We initially enquired about an extension back in October, and after submitting the project extension form, a meeting with our Grant Fund Manager and their supervisor and submitting a revised extension request before Christmas, we nervously waited for a response over the festive break.
Fortunately, this week we received confirmation that our grant has been extended until the end of June 2025, giving us sufficient time to complete the purchase and spend the revenue portion of the grant.
COF Support Grant
We’ve also had to submit our final report for our £10,000 application support grant which was submitted on-time and has been accepted – making full use of it by spending the full grant amount.
Community Funding Circle
Now that we have a purchase date to work towards – we are now finalising the loan agreements with our generous supporters who have offered us loans at an affordable interest rate compared to the offering from commercial lenders. It is crucial that we move quickly with these to ensure we have the funds in place well in advance of the purchase date.
Full Steam Ahead!
Now that we have a date to work towards, the committee is working hard to ensure that everything is in place for a smooth transition. We have been in regular communications with the current owner and our solicitor who is handling the purchase and loan agreements. I have begun meeting with the staff of the Shop and Post Office on our plans and their ongoing involvement as part of the purchase of the Shop as a going concern.
There are many things that we have to think about and prepare for over the next few months for a smooth transition – staffing, rotas/shifts, card payment machines, suppliers, bookkeeping, payroll, policies & procedures, health & safety, VAT registration, premise licenses, utilities etc. to name a few that were discussed at our committee meeting this week. Not to mention planning for our grand (?) opening!
Your Community Shop and Post Office – Name Ideas Wanted
To mark the momentous occasion of bringing the Shop into community ownership, the committee is considering renaming/rebranding the shop and would like some help in finding the perfect name. Our current legal name, Weston SOS ‘Save Our Shop’ Limited will (hopefully!) no longer be relevant as we will have succeeded on our namesake and mission. It could be something simple like “Weston Community Shop” or “The Community Shop” but we’d love to know your ideas! We may produce a shortlist of the suggestions and put it to a member vote to decide on the new name.
How can you help?
There are a number of ways you can help us:
- Treasurer/Accounts. We’re still searching for a replacement Treasurer on the committee. We’re confident that we can move forward with the purchase without an appointed treasurer but anyone with any accounting experience to help answer questions in the short term would be most appreciated. A new treasurer will need to be appointed when we have our initial members meeting – expected to take place a few months after the purchase. We also need assistance with submitting our annual accounts for the period ending 31st December.
- Volunteering. If you think you might have a spare few hours here or there to help with the running of the shop, or have a useful skill or trade that might be willing to help us out – please do get in touch. This could be helping with restocking, running errands, some light maintenance/refurbishment jobs, helping provide some staff holiday cover, back-office admin etc.
- Anything else – please get in touch! Not sure how you can help…but willing…please do get in touch anyway.
The next few months are going to be very busy for the committee, the current owner and the shop staff and we will do our best to keep you informed and minimise any disruption around the transfer date. We had hoped to share some news sooner but wanted to wait until we had received the good news of our grant extension.
Many thanks,
Sam and the Weston SOS Committee
chair@weston-sos-org
committee@weston-sos.org