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Village shop and post office |
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News: 12 June 2006
The village shop and Post Office, along with the living accommodation, has been placed on the market with specialist commercial estate agents Humberstones for £330,000.
Humberstones report that there’s been lots of interest in the purchase of the shop and post office and they’re confident that a buyer will soon be found. However, they advise that the process for taking on a post office is a lengthy one with business plans, interviews and accreditations taking up to five months to complete. So, we need to be patient!
Humberstones can be contacted on 0121
678 7788, email midlands@humberstones.co.uk News: 7 February 2006
As you will be aware, the village shop has now been closed and boarded up following the unfortunate closure of the post office just before Christmas.
The shop is an invaluable resource for villagers in Cottingham, Middleton and East Carlton, and Cottingham Parish Council Clerk, Peter Taylor, is leading a cross-village working party that is looking to find a solution to the closure as soon as possible.
The working party, which includes representatives from the Post Office, Northants ACRE and local councillor Bob Rutt, is in active liaison with the shop’s current proprietor. A number of possible solutions to the closure have been discussed, including re-opening the shop on a temporary ‘village co-operative’ basis, but no action can really be taken until the intentions of the current proprietor are made known. However, the good news is that there has been a lot of interest shown in taking over the shop and post office, not only from the surrounding area, but nationally as well.
An official notice for the vacancy of sub-postmaster has been advertised (see the Parish Council notice boards) and anyone who’d like to register their interest should call Post Office Agency Recruitment on 0845 6016260. Anyone interested in taking over the shop should contact Peter Taylor on 01536 262984 (daytime) or 01536 761752 (evenings).
Free Shopping and Bread Delivery
Whilst the shop is closed, villagers Rachel Hudson and Denise McElwain have offered to provide a free shopping service for villagers in Cottingham and Middleton who are unable to get to the shops themselves. They plan to make one trip to Asda every Thursday so if you’d like to take them up on this offer, call Rachel on 770766 or Denise on 771374.
Also, Jan Sturman on Blind Lane is offering to run a bread delivery service for Cottingham and Middleton villagers. Jan already sells bread alongside her award-winning pickles and preserves on her stall at Rothwell’s Monday market and she’s willing to order and deliver bread to villagers on Mondays if enough people are interested. If you’d like to take Jan up on this offer, give her a call on 771713.
Newspaper Delivery
The Evening Telegraph has put a couple of delivery teams on standby to make sure you can still get your local paper. If you’d like to know more about ET deliveries, call the sales office on 01536 506178. The ET is also still on the lookout for a few more youngsters to help deliver newspapers in the villages. If you’re interested, call Sam at the ET on 01536 506184.
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