The last few months have been fairly busy for all involved, but unfortunately there has not been much to write about.

The fund raising group has been a hive of activity organising the very sucessful country dance, fun car rally and the pig roast. Considerable work has also been undertaken to obtain the agreements to hold a village market in and around the Village Hall. With several very successful fund raising events behind us there are now various grants that we can also apply for.

Following the "Heart Award" the Courier have expressed interest in following the progress of the project which is most welcome and were at the hog roast on Sunday taking pictures and testing the hog.

The steering group have also been meeting frequently to establish the groundwork for taking the project forward as soon as there is progress on acquiring the church.

There are two main aspects the steering group are looking at. The first is trying to acquire the church as a site for the shop.The second is the actual setting up of a community shop.

The first major task is preparing a detailed business plan that will be needed in future to apply for grants. We are also looking at the legal status under which to operate as there are numerous options from a standard company, registered charity, co-operative to and industrial and provident society.

While we do not yet have a shop building, shelving has been donated along with a fridge and a Post Office counter!

The general feeling is that the project is gaining momentum and it is hoped that there will be some indication as to the way forward sooner rather than later.