The Village Shop - URGENT NOTIFICATION - PLEASE READ

• The village shop has now been open for two years and has been well used by the village and visitors alike. Many residents have said what a difference it makes. Udi and Dina have worked hard with their team to make it successful and to show that it is possible to have a viable shop within the village. The addition of the post office has definitely saved the time of travelling and the queuing in Newport Pagnell.
   
• However, unfortunately, reluctantly Udi and Dina have decided to step down from running the Sherington shop in August this year for domestic reasons and to concentrate solely on running the Castlethorpe shop. They have kindly given us good notice in order that we can come up with an alternative solution to keep the shop operational.
   
• They have introduced one potential person to take the shop over but he has decided not to take up the option and they will continue to approach other interested parties but we cannot rely on this. So where does that leave the village shop - simply if nothing happens between now and August the shop will close! We therefore need to take action ourselves if we want to continue to have a shop and post office in the village.
   
• In order to take this forward we need to form a new committee to look at alternative means of keeping the shop open. This could be:
   
  • Volunteers with someone or a group managing the stock
  • A new manager to take over the shop from Udi and Dina
  • A company to run the shop as a commercial concern
  • Others options?
  
  
• Whatever happens it needs to happen very soon as the clock is ticking................
   
• We will certainly advertise in SCAN and other appropriate media, but any suggestions are welcome. We are also contemplating holding a village hall meeting to discuss this.
   
• If you would like to be part of the new shop committee and/or have constructive ideas or suggestions please email Mel Northfield at [email protected] or call on 07733 102006.