Brent Knoll’s community shop is set to move into a temporary Portakabin after their current premises was sold.
The shop has operated at a profit as a Community Benefit Society, staffed by volunteers, from the first day of trading last year.
Faced with ‘eviction’ in October, the shop’s Management Committee has agreed with Brent Knoll Parish Council that they will move to a rented Portakabin in the car park beside the village green and Parish Hall.
This solution means that the shop can continue operating without any interruption.
At a meeting between the Parish Council, the Parish Hall Committee, and the Community Shop, it was also agreed that the shop’s monthly events – which have been staged on the forecourt of the village shop – can be staged on the patio of the Parish Hall.
John Rogers, newly elected chair of the Community Shop Management Committee, says: “This is the ideal solution. We can arrange a move to the Portakabin before we are evicted from the village shop, enabling us to continue our services uninterrupted.”
Meanwhile, Brent Knoll Parish Council has secured public consent to explore the potential for a loan to demolish the village’s public toilets and build a new development to provide both public toilets and a new shop.
“It’s a simple fact that we must continue to provide what has become a crucial service for so many people in our community.”
