A NEW SHOP BUILDING FOR ALL CANNINGS

PLEASE HELP US IF YOU CAN

We are fund-raising for the cost of replacing our old shop building. See below for the story of the shop and why we need to replace it with a new one.

To pledge a donation towards the cost of the new shop building CLICK HERE

All donations, large and small will be recognised on a celebrations wall in the new shop.

WHEN?

Planning Permission was given in 2024 for the new building and the shop has been granted a long lease by the All Cannings Community Trust. We are ready to build as soon as we have raised enough money.

Cost

The estimated cost of the new building is around £260,000 and may go up with inflation. An application has been made for a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund. It is hoped that this will bring in at least £100,000.  That still leaves a substantial amount to raise.

Your Help

We are asking our supporters to pledge donations. We will not ask for pledges to be turned into donations until we have succeeded with the application to the National Lottery Community Fund or have raised the equivalent sum from elsewhere.

If you can pledge a specific amount of money, this will help in applying to other funders, by showing strong local support. However, if you are not ready to pledge a specific amount, then you can leave the amount blank.

OUR HISTORY

There has been a shop in the centre of the village for as long as anyone can remember(with the exception of between 2002 and 2005 after the old Post Office and Shop closed down, and before the community shop opened in December 2005).

After the closure of the old Post Office, there was a huge effort made by many people in the village to bring back a shop as the absence was keenly felt. However, at that time, what was achievable was a shop in a temporary building with  temporary planning permission on a piece of land leased on a short-term basis from the Village Hall. Fifteen years later, we’re still in the same situation.

In order to ensure that there will continue to be a shop serving the village community, we feel it is time to create a permanent shop building with a secure future.

Making that happen will involve another big effort from the village community to secure enough funding to replace the existing building with a new one; one with  permanent planning permission and secure and lasting occupation of the site behind the Village Hall.

A Brief History of the Current Building

The existing shop building started life as a second-hand portacabin that was craned into place.

After three years, a second portacabin was added alongside the first and the side walls were taken out. The resulting larger building then had a metal roof put over the top and pine board cladding added on the outside. That is the building you see today.

There was some guttering fitted to the front, alongside the Village Hall garden, with the rainwater discharging into an open gulley running alongside the end wall. At the front, the rainwater from the porch just empties onto the concrete slabs.

Eight years ago, we discovered that part of the original portacabin was quite severely affected by wet rot at the back of the building. This side of the building had no guttering and no cladding. Rain was blowing off the roof and soaking into the wall. This was aggravated by rising damp from the ground with the result that part of the floor structure and the plywood walls were badly rotted.

We replaced the rotten plywood, but the rotten timbers couldn’t be cut out without affecting the structure, so they were cleaned up and left in situ.

Guttering was added to the rear of the shop to reduce the risk of the same problem re-occurring. However, a secondary area of rot has been growing slowly.

A professional surveyor has advised that it is no longer a viable option to keep these two thirty year old portacabins going.

Inside, the shop has a sort of dilapidated charm and is at least dry and warm. Sometimes too warm! However, the toilet and kitchen facilities provided for staff are very basic, the office is tiny and the tiny storage space has been assessed as a safety hazard

THE AMBITION

In spite of the problems with the temporary building, the shop’s trading position has been stable over the years and the trading account posts a modest surplus each year.

So, after twenty years, we feel it is time to turn the original trial project into a permanent reality which will accurately represent the importance of the shop to the All Cannings village community.

We have spent the last few years imagining what a new shop would look like and our new design got planning permission in 2024. The new building will be larger than the old one to create space for:

·         More storage

·         Space to meet and chat

·         A fully wheelchair-accessible building

HOW WOULD WE ACHIEVE THIS?

We have chosen a SIPS (Structurally Insulated Panel) system of building, which means that a new building could go up in around three months and therefore minimise losses to the shop. This will also be less disruptive to those who live near to the Village Hall.

Whilst our use of portacabins has been allowed with temporary planning permission, we need a better quality building to secure a long-term permission. Replacement with new portacabins is also not an option because building regulations now restrict the use of cranes near power cables.

PAYING FOR IT

We will have to raise all the money needed from local fundraising and from securing a number of large grants.

In order to secure significant grants and funding, it is essential to demonstrate strong support within the local villages for this project. The community fund-raising target will form part of that.

This is a huge task and one that will need support from us all. All the money raised or donated will go into a special account reserved for this purpose.

We are very excited by the prospect of a new premises for our wonderful community shop. We hope you are, too.

We welcome those who would like to come forward to offer time, skills or expertise to help us achieve this objective.

Raising the funds

As of February 2025, the amount raised from shop business reserves, grants, donations and pledges of support, is around 45% of the current estimated cost.

We have submitted an application for at least £100,000 to the National Lottery Community Fund as well as applications to smaller grant-giving organisations.

In January 2025 we called a village meeting to promote the fund-raising phase of this exciting project. 64 people turned out on a drizzly evening to show their support at the meeting, which launched our community fund-raising effort.

We are asking anyone who wants to support the continuation of a shop in All Cannings to make a formal pledge of money towards the fund-raising target. We have promised only to redeem pledges once we are confident that the project will go ahead. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PLEDGE FORM.