Community joins forces to save only village shop

Residents of Westgate, near Stanhope, held a public meeting last week to discuss their options and have since formed a committee.

They received a letter in December warning them that the shop, including the in-house Post Office, could close in April this year because of low turnover.

The Co-operative is the only shop in the village and is owned by Lakes and Dales Co-operative, which was formed following the merger of Penrith Co-operative and Scotmid, who also have stores in Frosterley, St John’s Chapel and Stanhope.

John Guyon, who has spear-headed the community action, said: “Our main concern is that it’s quite an isolated site and some people in the village don’t have their own transport.

“There are also people in the village who don’t have bank accounts and rely on the Post Office services.”

Peter Nailon, a member of the committee and a resident of Westgate for 45 years, added: “If the shop goes it will be a huge miss to the village. My wife uses it on a daily basis.

“I also think it’s important to retain the jobs that are there as well as the social hub aspect for the elderly.

“When the weather is bad it’s especially important and I would hope that people can see the value of that and put a proportion of their shop into the co-op.”

Malcolm Brown, head of corporate communications at Scotmid Co-operative, said: “We recognised immediately that Westgate had low turnover and was struggling.

“However, despite this we gave a commitment that we would trade the store for over a year to gain a better understanding of the store and to see if we could turn it around.

“This unfortunately has not been possible and it is our intention to market Westgate as a going concern, meaning that going forward we do not see the store as part of our future plans.

“We will keep our staff fully briefed on the progress of the marketing of the stores. In the meantime the store will remain open as normal.”

However the newly established committee are hopeful that there is a chance the shop could still be saved.

Mr Nailon added: “John has had contact with Scotmid and it’s encouraging that the company are talking to us, we hope that this is the way forward.”

A spokesman from the Post Office said: "We can confirm that  Scotmid Co-operative have given us notice they will no longer be operating Post Office services from their Westgate premises.

"Customers should be assured that the Post Office is committed to maintaining a Post Office service in Westgate and will work hard to ensure this.

"We are currently assessing options to maintain service while we work to identify a permanent solution for Post Office customers in Westgate.”