Village Shops do not seem to be seen as rural assets but are seen as profit making enterprises by funders. Community shops in contrast get lots of support. Are there ways we can encourage Village Shops to develop?

During the current network change my office is to close and be replaced by a home service, this is not a viable service for the community and also means that the current host shop will probably close and is the last amenity in the village. We as the owners are looking for ways as maintaining as many services as possible through the shop premise. We know we can become a business pick up for post so have that covered apart from funding but cannot get terminals such as pay point as very small village so do not have the trade levels they required by the providers. We do have good local support but as many customers are from outlying farms have already travelled some distance to us. Can you put us in touch with any funding or related bodies.

Its important that RSSupport can demonstrate solutions that are already working in practice. Can you tell me if communities are already implementing services to cope with gaps in provision of post office counter services. I've heard of a particularly innovative scheme in the Forest of Dean. However I'm having trouble finding more details on it.