Evidence that the Big Society exists

In the latest issue of Business First there’s a story about Kirdford in Sussex – the village was at risk of losing its local shop, so volunteers banded together to sell £10 shares to buy it, raised £200k, blagged free bits and bobs while local builders chucked in their time for nothing, and came up with a wholly locally-owned store that acts as parish pump, cafe, internet hub, arts centre and, of course, shop.

They were assisted by the Plunkett Foundation, whose founder Horace Plunkett’s philosophy is summed up as:

We seek economic solutions to create social change

We seek solutions that enrich rural community life

We see self-help as the most effective way to tackle rural needs…

Sounds like a big piece of the Big Society right there.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 8:50 am and is filed under Fresh News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.