VILLAGERS in Brent Knoll are set to open an 'emergency shop' to help residents during the coronavirus crisis.

The shop will be opened on April 18 in the former Brent Knoll Village Shop building and will sell newspapers, bread, milk, groceries and vegetable boxes which will all be sourced from local suppliers.

The announcement comes just weeks after Brent Knoll Village Shop closed and more than 100 residents supported a plan to turn the village shop into a community run store.

David Sturgess, a member of the steering group for the community shop project said the shop will act as a bridge between the recent closure of the village shop and plans to create a community run store.

“Our plan is to re-open the closed village shop in Brent Knoll on Saturday, April 18 as an emergency shop which volunteers will staff for two hours per day from 9am to 11am for five days per week," David said.

"We’ll be closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. Right now, we need the 42 people who responded to our community-shop survey to say that they are also willing to help with this emergency shop initiative."

In February the closure of Brent Knoll’s village shop prompted around 150 households to respond to a survey to explore plans to open community shop in its place.

The survey found that 146 people supported the idea of a community shop to replace the now closed village shop and Post Office and only one person was opposed the idea.

Forty-two villagers offered to be volunteers to help run the shop, 26 people offered to join the steering group, 12 people offered their professional skills to the project and 93 villagers agreed to become share-buying members at a cost of £50-£100.

David said he hopes the emergency shop will be a success and the steering group is launching the 'Brent Knoll Bake-Off' to encourage residents to bake cakes, biscuits and scones for sale in the shop.

“We are now waiting to hear whether the Plunkett Foundation – the charity that has helped more than 300 other rural community shops to thrive – will provide their support, Meanwhile, we need to do something to help the isolated people in our village to have access to basic products," Mr Sturgess said.

“We want our neighbours to use their isolated hours to bake cakes, biscuits, and scones that can be sold in our ‘emergency shop’ to help cover the costs of such things as electricity for the refrigerator."