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WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS

We are keen to have as many volunteers as we can to cover all the shifts in the shop and all eventualities. Shifts are 3:15 hours long for the front-of-house staff in the shop for these opening times:

  • Monday to Friday (excl bank holidays) 0715–1900
  • Saturday 0830–1700
  • Sunday/some Bank Hols (no deliveries) 1000–1600

We need front-of-house shop staff but also anything else you can offer from DIY and building work to computers, cleaning and deliveries. Full training will be given for front-of-house staff so no need to worry about anything, it’s going to be a great place to be! We’ll need a mix of people who can do regular shifts and those who can fill in as and when.

Get in touch with Sally Smith, our friendly volunteer manager on:
volunteers.bishopwiltoncommunityshop@gmail.com or 07971 875 871.

Do you have a van and/or storage space? Would you be able to help us move and/or store shop fixtures whilst the building work is going on? Please let us know if you can help!

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OUR LATEST NEWSLETTER

A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

A huge thank you to everyone who came to our recent event, it was very well attended and we received fabulous feedback from you all. Everyone was particularly interested in the community spirited ideas such as pre ordering breads and cakes and services such as a drop off/pick up of – for example, fish from the weekly fish van. Thank you for completing the ‘Shopping Lists’, they are providing all the essential information that we need. The Bishop Wilton Community Shop will have all the day to day basics plus treats such as those everyone enjoyed at ‘A Taste of Things to Come’.

Thank you again to the community of Bishop Wilton – we are all in this together!

FUNDRAISING

We have now raised £36,000 through share applications with £16,000 still needed to hit the target. Huge thanks to all of you who have already applied for shares. Here are three great reasons to buy shares (or buy some more!)

1. We’ll get a shop for the benefit of the whole community and the environment. The shop will provide convenience and great local produce as well as a place to meet, have a chat or a coffee. As a shareholder you become a member of the Community Benefit Society, Bishop Wilton Community Shop Ltd and will have a say in how the shop is run and what benefits it provides to the community.

2. You should be able to get half of your investment back from the tax man. Our application for Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme status for the share offer was recently approved. This means if you are a UK taxpayer you should be able to claim a tax refund of 50% of the amount invested. Further details about this very generous incentive are available on our website. Alternatively drop us an email or call David Gaskin on 07803 023842 if you have any questions.

3. If you own a house locally, having a shop should increase its value. It is well established that having a local shop along with other local amenities enhances house prices in the area. Some attribute as much as 5% to this.

Now is the time to buy shares or more shares as the share offer closes on 9th June. We have attached an application form for your convenience, but if you want to apply and haven’t already seen our prospectus please take a look at this. If you live in the parish it should have been delivered through your door in April but it is also available on our website.

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Advance assurance of SEIS (50%) tax credit on shares now received!

We are delighted to inform you that we have now received advance assurance from HMRC that our share offer qualifies for Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme tax relief.
This is a 50% tax credit so you should, if you pay enough tax, be able to get back half of your investment.
For example, if you have applied for (or are about to apply for!) £1,000 in shares you should be able to reduce your UK income tax bill by £500 (provided you have paid, or will pay, at least that amount of tax in this current tax year and the year before combined) . We expect to be able to issue to you a certificate (SEIS3) a few months after the shop has started trading to enable you to claim the tax credit.

We will provide more guidance on how to claim the tax credit when we issue the SEIS3, but we are unable to provide personal tax advice and each investor is responsible for satisfying themselves as to their eligibility for any tax reliefs. Please also see www.gov.uk for more information on the rules concerning the income tax credit and other SEIS related tax reliefs available.

If you haven’t applied for shares already, hopefully this provides another good reason to do so. If you have already applied, but would like to buy some more based on this news, this is also great – just complete another share application form and we will combine the two applications together.

The share offer remains open until June 9 unless we hit the £52,000 target before then!

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

If you buy shares you become a member of the society and have a say in what we do!

Donations are also very welcome – it would be great if you could specify that your donation is for building work/refurbishment.

Please see this link

The Management Committee has the discretion to pay a small amount of interest on shares. There is no intention to do this in the short term.

Under the rules of the society you must hold your shares for at least three years. If, after that, you need your money back you can apply to withdraw your shares. This will be at the discretion of the Management Committee and it is likely that there will not be sufficient funds available, at least in the medium term, to handle large scale withdrawals.

You get a shop in the village! If you buy shares you also have voting rights and therefore have a say about who is on the committee and what happens to the shop profit. For house owners there is also the increase in house value associated with having a shop in the village.

No. The rules of the society state “1 person 1 vote” however many shares you have bought.

No – only the Treasurer and the Secretary will have access to this information (and, by request, the Financial Conduct Authority).

Your name and share holding will be on an official register of members of the Community Benefit Society (Bishop Wilton Community Shop Ltd) – this is a legal document but it is password protected and cannot be seen except by the Treasurer and the Secretary.

Profits must go back into the shop or the community. If we make more profit than we need to run the shop the extra will be put back into the community and/or used to pay a small amount of interest on shares.

This decision is made by the committee (but, don’t forget, the shareholders vote in the committee). This would always be discussed at the AGM so all shareholders will be able to have their say.

The current management committee will all retire at the first Annual General Meeting of the society. Those who want to stand again for election may do so together with any others who are nominated for election. Shareholders (members of the Community Benefit Society) will be able to nominate, be nominated and vote in this election.

Yes. There is wide range of training to be undertaken by the volunteers eg food handling, Health and Safety, first aid, working the till (EPOS). There will also be some volunteer events to get to know each other and find out what it is all about.

3 ¼ hours is the planned shift length at the moment but you could choose to do two or more shifts in succession.

Yes – you request your shift times and patterns and, if you want to work with someone just tell us. There will be an online rota system which you could access from home IF you wanted to.

Definitely – that makes things easy for everyone, but equally you could have different shifts each week or just be a “stand in” for when people on the rota are unable to work.

That is fine too – just tell us when you are available.

Sometimes it is really useful to have a bank of flexible workers who can step in at short notice.

Right from the start we have adopted a “no blame” culture – we all work together and we are all responsible for our mistakes!

You won’t be! There will be a minimum of two people on every shift.

It is likely that there will be Lead Volunteers who will work with one or two committee members … eventually we may have a part time shop manager who could take on this role.

You – and the lead volunteers/committee/shop manager. We already have the information you gave us when we sent the questionnaires round last August. Some decisions are already starting to be made – the first opportunity to do this is at “A Taste of Things To Come”. This event, on Wednesday May 15th 7pm at the village hall, will showcase many local suppliers and give us the opportunity to sample some of their products. Come along then give us your feedback and any other ideas. If you have ideas NOW about local suppliers let us know -e mail us at bishopwiltonshop@gmail .com If there are specific groceries/other items that you would definitely want to buy from the shop let us know. There will be a “suggestions” book in the shop (and on line as well) which everyone is encouraged to write in – let us know what you would like to see!

  • Everyday basic groceries – plenty of them
  • Fresh fruit and veg
  • Meats/fish from local suppliers
  • Nice bread and bakery items
  • A wide range of items from local producers
  • Stationery/nice cards/gift wrap etc
  • Newspapers
  • Tobacco products
  • Pies/pasties/sandwiches
  • Beers/wines/spirits
  • And MUCH more…

Not to start with! We will stock stamps and we will be a parcel drop off/collection point. We would also like to provide a voluntary PO “run” to Bugthorpe to help people who cannot get to a PO… we need to work out how this might work.

Yes – we intend to sell newspapers.

No – as a shareholder you have limited liability so will not be liable for any such events. We will also have liability insurance to protect the shop.

Cleaning…. PO runs… shopping/cash and carry…   Maintenance…. Book-keeping…. Gardening… if you can think of something we might need please offer your services!

The money is needed for a variety of things: volunteer training, stocking the shop, refurbishment and fitting. A large proportion of the money is for the building costs. By opening out the current premises a much bigger space will be created which will mean that there is a greater opportunity for selling goods and services as well as creating space for the community to use.

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EXCITING NEWS!

The opportunity has arisen to buy the village shop building. A third party has agreed to purchase the shop and to lease it to the community on favourable terms.

After much groundwork we are now ready to move into the next, very exciting, stage… fundraising!

We need to raise over £50,000, very quickly, so that, once the purchase is completed, we can start refurbishing and then stocking the shop. It would be great to be able to open the Bishop Wilton Community Shop in autumn.

Please come to one of our LAUNCH MEETINGS to find out more:

On Wednesday 24th April in Bishop Wilton Village Hall 4pm or 7pm

You can download the Share Prospectus, our business plan, Code of Conduct and Model rules here:

Shares Prospectus

Business Plan

Management Committee Code of Conduct

CBS Model Rules

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THE NEXT STEPS…

Since our open meeting in November your shop committee has been really busy laying the groundwork for the next stage…


We are now in the process of setting up a Community Benefits Society (CBS) which will be the company for the shop. Once this is set up, we will then be able to sell shares in the shop at just £10 each. Along with this, work has already started on the business plan and work continues on the location.


Susan has been working hard on identifying and starting applications for grant funding from various sources for the project as a whole.
Annina (Chair) and Sally (Vice Chair) were interviewed on local radio station Vixen 101 about the project.

We will soon be announcing a Volunteer Event: anyone who has already signed up, or is interested in volunteering on any level, can come along, find out more and meet other volunteers. We are planning to have a speaker and you can find out what is involved, as well as how other shops thrive with their volunteering community.

If you would like to register your interest or have something to offer, we would love to hear from you.

Our email is: bishopwiltonshop@gmail.com or telephone Louise Butcher on: 369589

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WHERE ARE WE NOW… AND WHAT’S NEXT?

We’ve come a long way since a little idea from Annina Diston sparked it all back in July. On Sunday 18th November 2018 we had an open village meeting to make it all official. Thank you to everyone who turned out to support the project and make this meeting happen including Ian Young from the Parish council who facilitated the meeting.

Since July, an informal group, growing from five to eight, has been taking the project forward with a lot of groundwork and research and it all became official at the open meeting with the village unanimously electing to go ahead with the shop project, an official committee and adopting a constitution for the Bishop Wilton Shop Project Group.

The Bishop Wilton Shop Project Group is something which all are welcome (and encouraged) to join. This may mean that you simply support the shop project or you want to get more involved, all levels of interest are welcome. The group members will be part of some of the decision making process and be the support needed to bring the project to fruition.

So, introducing your new, official Bishop Wilton Shop Project Group Committee…

Left to right front row: Louise Butcher (Chair) with skills in education, public speaking and organising, Annina Diston (the one who started it all!) with skills in design and marketing, Sally Smith (Vice Chair) with skills in media, event organising and education. Middle row: Ruth Rowland with skills in business, Liz Collins (Secretary) with secretarial and organisational skills, Susan Frost with skills in fundraising. Back row: David Gaskin (Treasurer) with skills in accountancy.

The next steps are now to do feasibility studies on various location options and work up a business plan in order to make this happen! We’ll keep you updated.

If you would like to register your interest or have something to offer we would love to hear from you. Our email is: bishopwiltonshop@gmail.com
or telephone Louise Butcher on: 369589

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CONSTITUTION

In order to continue the process, which would lead to the realisation of a community shop in Bishop Wilton, we need a more formal organisational structure. At the meeting on the 18th November we need to decide if we really want to progress with the project.

If so, we will:

• Adopt a constitution

• Elect a committee

If you would like to see a copy of the constitution it is available here for viewing, or on the notice-board near the post box, at the village hall and on our website bwcommunityshop.co.uk. You can also pick up a hard copy from an envelope on the garage door of Dray Cottage (next door to 2 Main Street).

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PUBLIC MEETING 18th NOVEMBER

Back in the summer we distributed a questionnaire about the possibility of having a community shop in Bishop Wilton. The response was very positive! Since then, a group of seven of us have been working hard on this idea: we are now ready to hold the public meeting and to make the project official. We will be delivering leaflets to every household in Bishop Wilton and the surrounding villages, containing information about the meeting, which will be held on Sunday November 18th at 4pm  in the village hall.
Please don’t hesitate to contact one of us if you would like to know more (all contact details are on the leaflet).

Hoping to see you on November 18th!

*Please note that children are welcome*

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QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

As you can see, we now have a shiny new logo alongside a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Currently, we have a small, informal working group for getting the ball rolling, but there will soon be a second public meeting, hopefully with some speakers from organisations, where we as a community can formalise an elected committee and recruit volunteers on all levels to move the project forward. In these early and informal stages we have been able to collect information from the questionnaire, visit other community shops in the area as well as familiarise ourselves with the process of opening a community shop and applying for membership of the Plunkett Foundation.

Details of the meeting will be communicated via the village notice board, the website, Facebook and Twitter pages as well as our email list where people have provided us with and email address via the questionnaire form.

Location, location, location is also high on the list of priorities as no premises confirmed as yet and at this stage we are still welcoming ideas whilst exploring the options we have. Please get in touch, if you have any suggestions.

We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who replied to the paper or online questionnaires over the summer. The results show that almost all the responses think that having a shop is important or very important.