Pledge to keep village shop open

The old village shop has been housed in a former butcher's

Organisers of a community-run village store have pledged to keep it open despite having to move from the shop where it has been housed for 11 years.

Frensham village shop and post office in Surrey has planning permission for a brand new building but has to move into a portable cabin in the meantime.

A £30,000 fundraising drive has allowed the shop committee to buy a cabin which will be delivered on 18 October.

Surrounding roads will be cleared while a crane lowers it into place.

'Never reopen'

"We were determined to keep the shop and post office open," said chairman John Heap.

"If it had closed it would never reopen again, because people would have gone elsewhere."

The shop, which has occupied a former butcher's in Shortfield Common Road since 1996, opened after the closure of the last commercially-run shop in the village.

Now the building is being sold and grants are not yet in place to allow work on the new shop to get under way.

The tailor-made portable cabin is expected to be in use for a number of years.

The shop, which has a professional manager and postmistress, is run with the help of 30 volunteers.

The new permanent building is to be on a recreation ground owned by the parish council and will also include other community facilities.