May I, as
chairman of the original Shop Committee charged with raising the funds and
building the Village Stores and first chairman of the Management Committee,
correct a statement in the Wallingford Herald of 2 December 2015 and also
comment on Garry McCracken's letter to you?
The accounts to
the end of 2014, circulated at the AGM, show that, to date, a total of £225,384
has been raised – not the £150,000 mentioned in the article – largely as the
result of the efforts of a small fundraising group headed by David Dobbin. They also show that the shop is now operating at a level to
just cover its cash outgoings but not sufficient to provide for depreciation,
the replacement of shopfittings nor to put anything aside for a “rainy day”.
Like Garry, I
welcome the opportunity for a vote by members but they must have the
information on which to make an informed decision. For instance, it is a simple calculation to see that it
would cost in wages alone (at the national minimum wage of £6.70 an hour) some
£16,200 a year to pay staff to work the hours quoted at the recent open
meeting. What commission would the
shop receive on sales to offset this?
I am told that the Post Office has calculated, on present sales, about
£3,000 to £5,000 a year; clearly it is not commercially sensible to take on a
full service Post Office on these terms.
We certainly should be pushing hard for a much reduced number of hours,
which is what the village have been used to anyway. What also would the shop have to pay towards the
alterations? There are many
unanswered questions.
On the practical
side, we heard vividly at the open meeting from both Post Office staff and shop
volunteers about the difficulties of operating the Post Office counter next to
the shop counter. Personally, I
was in a line of five at the Post Office on Monday which has only served to
emphasise the points they made.
I know that a
large number of those who have helped to create, and continue to support the
shop as volunteers, would like to have a Post Office in the village – but not
necessarily in the shop. Like
them, I would welcome an assurance from the current Management Committee that
it will not enter into any contract with the Post Office which would put the
shop at risk either practically or financially.
It would be
tragic to lose a shop, which is developing so well under Margot and Mandy and
their volunteers and for which we fought so hard, for the sake of retaining in
the shop a full-service Post Office which makes no sense either operationally
or financially.
Yours faithfully
Jim Sanger
PS. What about adding a franking machine to
Garry's list of services?
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