Villagers' bid to open shop again

Dozens of residents of a village near Whitchurch will join forces tomorrow night in a bid to revive their village shop.

A public meeting has been called by villagers in Tilstock who want to formulate a community business plan to reopen the village shop and run it as a community-owned enterprise.

The shop closed in 2002 following the retirement of the owner.

Chris Chambers, who is spearheading the project, said he hoped it could be entered for a BBC TV series Village SOS, which sees village enterprise projects pitted against each other and monitored for progress.

He said the shop could be owned by community shareholders and run by volunteers and people who wanted to sell their own produce.

The meeting takes place from 6.30 to 7.30pm at Tilstock Village Hall.