Rural Services - Community services - shops, post offices, health and community care

Village shops are vital to the life and future of all villages. Many of the people who live in village communities cannot, or do not want to, travel to large supermarkets and enjoy the local interaction that can take place in a village shop.

Many rural communities are finding that the only sure way to secure their post office and/or village shop, for the long-term, is to form a community-owned enterprise to take over the ownship and operation. For information specifically about community-owned shops, visit the ViRSA website

Oxfordshire Rural Community Council has produced a toolkit specifically for Community Shops and Post Offices. To view, click on: How2 Create a Community Shop and Post Office (ORCC)

The Campaign for Community Banking Services pressure group is a co-ordinating body for national organisations representing sectoral interests adversely affected by the closure of local bank branches, particularly of the last or only bank in a rural or urban community.

http://www.communitybanking.org.uk/