THE future of a village community shop has received three green lights to proceed.

Brent Knoll Community Shop’s plan to demolish the village’s public toilets and replace them with modern toilets and a permanent shop building required support from the community and parish council and planning consent, which has now been given by Sedgemoor District Council 

Having launched as an ‘Emergency Shop’ in 2020, the volunteer-run venture has been operating from a Portakabin for the past year.

More than 135 residents attended a recent Public Engagement Event to see plans and seek answers from both the Parish Council and the shop’s Management Committee.
126 people completed survey forms, with 121 in support, 4 against, and one “undecided”.

This, compared to the council’s previous 2021 survey (80 per cent support and 20 per cent opposed), indicated a strong trend of increasing support.

Four days later, Brent Knoll Parish Council met to hear the results of the public event and to decide whether to proceed with the plan to demolish the public toilets and build new accessible toilets and the shell for the Community Shop to fit out and occupy.
They voted unanimously to proceed with the project.

Sedgemoor District Council's consent for the new building enables Brent Knoll Parish Council to pursue its loan application and prepare a pre-lease agreement, while the Community Shop team seeks a shopfitter to advise on the optimum internal layout for the new shop building.