Residents of a Shropshire village are being invited to buy £10 ‘shares’ in their new shop to help pay for it to be built.

Tibberton, near Newport, has been left without a village store since 2009. More than 50 villagers have now joined in a bid to open a shop which will be owned and staffed by the community and open seven days a week. And residents are being offered the chance to buy £10 shares in the new shop.

The shares for the shop, being built next to the village hall, will help raise the £8,000 needed to pay for it.

The shop will initially stock basics, alongside produce from local suppliers.

Robert Hampton, a retired builder who was on the original steering group behind plans for the shop, said: “It’s not a unique project but it’s a community project and everybody is getting involved.

“The unit will be delivered on October 3 and so far we are right on schedule. We are preparing the foundations, it’s all going to plan.”

Any extra money raised from selling shares will be reinvested in the shop and donated to local charities.

Local chartered accountant Jo Ford said the store was being registered as an Industrial and Provident Society with the Financial Services Authority.

Mr Ford said: “The membership are entitled to one vote each, regardless of the amount of money they invest, which makes it very different to a company one would normally invest in.

“There is no financial return. This is all about a social return. It is about the benefits to the village and the benefits to charities in the local community if we make surpluses.”

The Tibberton Community Shop committee has been advised by the Plunkett Foundation, which has helped some 240 villages across the country to set up their own community shops.

Committee member Geraldine Stokes-Harrison said the community was determined to succeed and that there had been plenty of volunteers.

Mrs Stokes-Harrison said: “One of the reasons for having a village shop is that it can become a meeting place for everyone in the village, and the surrounding area.”

She added: “We want to make sure the shop is welcoming and right for everyone who is going to use it.”

To help the shop call (01952) 551022.

By Paul Mannion