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Woodgreen residents Daphne Clarke and Duncan - representing past and future - accepted keys at the official opening. DB1647P3

WOODGREEN village shop and post office was officially handed over to the Woodgreen Community Shop Association on the final day of the year, after much hard work by local villagers to prevent its closure.

The handover was carried out by Rev. Simon Horne, who handed over giant keys to long-standing village resident Daphne Clarke and youngster Duncan, who represented the past and future of the shop.

As reported in the Forest Journal in November, residents from Woodgreen and surrounding districts rallied to buy shares and donate cash so that the shop and post office could be purchased and run on a community basis.

The project will depend on a team of workers from nearby villages, who will do paid work in the shop and post office.

About £15,500 was raised in the first week alone after the launch of the Woodgreen Community Shop Association, a non-profit making company limited by guarantee, on November 21. And there are currently 350 members of the association, with more people joining each day by buying a £10 share.

Even the paper round is covered and has been kept going by four villagers. And a car was kindly donated by Pete Skinner, a local garage owner, who has also offered to maintain it, so that newspaper deliveries can stay on schedule.

Woodgreen resident Andrea Finn, who has been leading the fight to save the shop said: "There are lots of skills in the village and on the new committee, too.

"There are people with personnel skills, business experience and so on."

Meryl Corby, who ran the shop initially after 1999 with her husband Brian, will be acting as managers, which will involve training everyone and getting the whole project up and running.

In the meantime, an advertisement has been placed for a manager to take on a minimum of 20 hours a week to oversee the day-to-day running of the shop.

The development of the community shop has been split into two phases.

The objective of phase one is to save the shop and keep it running and phase two involves separating the shop from a private accommodation currently attached to it.

Andrea said that phase two would be launched in around three month's time when the community shop was fully operational.

She said: "It has been fantastic. It amazes me - the goodwill and skills available locally and people's will to share those skills.

"This is also pulling together newcomers, people with families and people who have been here a long time."

8:20am Sunday 7th January 2007

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