A VILLAGE shop near a Herefordshire town says it should be open for another year after a £10,000 cash injection.

There had been fears over the future of The Shop at Bromsberrow, in the village outside Ledbury near the M50, after it said in August that it was facing a "critical financial situation" amid soaring costs.

Co-chairs of the community shop Percy Hunt and Jo Davidson said they had written to members of the shop and volunteers as, in September, the shop’s electricity bill was set to jump to around £7,000 a year and, in November, its rent is due to go up by £1,000 annually.

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While energy support for businesses might have helped since, the shop, which sells groceries, daily papers, local produce and beers, wines, spirits and tobacco, now has one last chance to save its future, Mr Hunt said.

But good progress has been made to form a new project team by the November 17 deadline to take the shop forward, saving it from shutting, but anyone interested in helping is still asked to get in touch.

 

The co-chairs previously said the shop could not sustain the rising costs, but more pressing than the financial position was a lack of volunteers to help run the shop, open for around 60 hours across seven days.

Mr Hunt has now said that a bid to the National Lottery Fund has been successful, with the shop awarded £10,000.

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This solves a number of concerns, he said, and allows the board to be confident about a further year in the current shop premises.

He also said he hopes to make good progress towards a new shop.

The shop is open to moving to an existing building or a new, purpose-built one, if it reduced the running costs.