Lesbury Community Shop Ltd is a company, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and created in January 2023 by a Steering Group consisting of unpaid local volunteers, with the purpose of providing Lesbury Village with a community-owned and run, non-profit-taking, Village Shop and associated community-focused services.
The Story So Far
In October 2022 Lesbury Village Shop and Post Office closed when the owner retired. Work by a ‘Steering Group’ of local residents identified widespread support amongst the community for maintaining a village shop. The Steering Group took steps to re-open the shop as a community business and the shop was registered as a Community Benefit Society in January 2023. This Community Benefit Society model best fits the intentions behind the project and allows for widespread membership and share ownership within the community.
The shop is mainly manned by volunteers and we currently have two part-time employees - part of our commitment to benefiting the Community is to try to improve local employment opportunities. Subject to volunteer availability, we hope that the shop will continue to open most days of the week.
The existing premises have been extensively repaired by the Landlords, Northumberland Estates. Funding for additional improvements and to re-open the shop wererobtained from grants, donations and our fully-subscribed community share offer (full details of which are available here).
The Committee
The current formal Management Committee is comprised of eight members who live in Lesbury village or nearby (listed below). The intention is that, at the appropriate stage, Committee membership will be determined by election, with Shareholders having the voting rights to democratically elect the volunteers who will carry the project forward into the future. Details of the governance arrangements and of similar matters is currently contained in the Share Offer, full information of which can be found here.
Current Committee Members Tony Dee (Chair) Peter Hall (Secretary) 07985 925500 Gill Bland 07974 746154 Mandy Drake Julie Hall Jean Humphrys 07906 146163 Nicki Mathewson Morag Robertson (Treasurer) 07775413402 John Starkey