BUCKING the trend that has seen thousands of village sub-post offices close all over the country, is Ropley, where a brand new village stores and post office has been officially opened by BBC South Today's Sally Taylor. The project has taken five years of planning, fundraising, hard work and officialdom, and has cost nearly £100,000, so last Friday there were smiles and congratulations all round, as a once-disused stable block in the centre of the village, became the focus of a new era for Ropley. About 80 villagers and representatives from bodies that have helped with the ambitious scheme watched as Sally Taylor unveiled the new shop and post office sign. Congratulating RVSPOA (Ropley Village Stores and Post Office Association), the group that spearheaded the campaign, she said: "Often when we lose a sense of community, we are not prepared to do anything about it, and would rather watch someone else do it, but this whole community has come together. This is the result, and all you need to do now is support it". David Hope-Mason, of the association, told the audience: "This is a very topical issue, and we have bucked the trend in Ropley, but it's been a long and winding road to get here". He thanked all the supporters, the grant- giving local authorities, district councillor Chris Graham for his "unstinting support", the builders and the villagers for their donations of almost a quarter of the cost, and for their practical help and encouragement. The initiative was started in earnest when Pondside Stores in Ropley closed after it failed to sell when the owners retired. Its demise prompted villagers to hold a meeting, when it was decided that a new shop should be opened by the community. To start with, a post office counter was opened for 15 hours each week in the coffee rooms opposite the church, and when the next-door stable block became available, the association took out a seven-year lease on the building. Rented at a peppercorn rate from the Diocese of Winchester, campaigners then set about conversion of The Courtyard into a fully-fledged shop. The project was boosted by grants of £35,431 from DEFRA's rural enterprise scheme, £15,000 from East Hampshire District Council's community initiatives fund, £1,000 from Ropley Parish Council and £7,475 from the Post Office, A bid has also been put in to Hampshire County Council for £8,000, and it's hoped that the support of the local authorities can help to reduce the association's £30,000 bank loan. The Courtyard Post Office and Shop is being run by mother and daughter team, Pauline Coates and Lisa Murphy. The shop opened for business on Monday and will be open Monday to Friday from 8-30 am to 5-30 pm and on Saturday from 8-30 am to 1 pm. A wide range of household, grocery, bakery, dairy, frozen, organic and meat products, with a heavy emphasis on local ly-produced goods, will be sold. The full post office service will be starting on Monday, November 6 at 9 am. Mr Hope-Mason said he hoped customers would not treat the facility as just "a top-up shop". "It's going to revive a local community centre because we're intending that the shop will actually be a focus point for the community and will be serving refreshments. "We have quite a lot of elderly people and retired, who live within a third of a mile of the shop, and we anticipate they will be using it for all their shopping needs. "It will also mean that many local residents, who currently have to get a bus into town to do their shopping, will shop here, and obviously we hope it will save a lot of unnecessary car journeys." Mr. Hope-Mason said there had been two key factors that had made the shop possible. "In the first instance, having a strong community. We know the need is here and the village got together and made a great point of saying we must try and save our village shop. "The other key is having the will. We undertook a major survey in the village, which was organised by Hampshire County Council and East Hampshire District Council, and as a result, 75 per cent of villagers said they were strongly in favour." Villager Sally Dennis said: "I really hope it works. I think it can. The village shop is very much part of the community and I am going to support it." Charlotte Boxall – an adviser from ViRSA (Village Retail Services Association), a national group giving advice and support to communities trying to start up shops – said there was a new movement in villages all over the country to try to revive community life through village shops, with 152 similar projects completed in the past 10 years. "The village shop is the core. The church was, but over the past 50 years or so, that's changed and other places have also disappeared. This type of project is a growing trend."
