Community Shops

Community Shops and Post Offices

Many rural communities have suffered from a reduction in local businesses and services in recent years. Village shops, post offices, pubs and garages have closed.

In agriculture, too, traditional types of employment have disappeared due to changes in farming methods. Villages face becoming dormitories for nearby towns and having no local services of their own. The Rural Access to Services Programme (RASP) is funded by SEEDA and managed by KCC and its county wide partners. Click here for further information on RASP.

What is a community shop?

It is a shop set up by the community, run by the community and for the community.

Key Stages of establishing a community shop

• Contact us here
  
• Preliminary research into historical provision of retail services in your village.
  
• Establish what you have already including information on shops in nearby villages
  
• Talk to other communities who have established a shop
  
• Find out if a community shop will be supported by your community
  
• Hold a public meeting – involving the inhabitants is a key to the success of a community shop
  
• Set up a steering group / committee
  
• Find suitable premises

We can help communities to assess the need for services and to plan projects in response to that need. This can help develop a sustainable local economy for the benefit of all who live there. We can provide information on grants available for regeneration projects and on best practice already taking place in Kent.

To find out more about Community Shops and how to go about setting one up you can download a leaflet by clicking on  this image.

Greater detail can be found in the Community Shops Toolkit and a copy of the toolkit can be downloaded by clicking on the thumbnail image of the front cover.

Having read either of these documents you wish to go ahead and set up a community shop, please contact Carl Adams on 01303 813790 or at carl.adams@ruralkent.org.uk.