Frome Town Council has agreed to support the SHARE Shop in finding a new premises to ensure the service can come out of ‘hibernation’ and get back up and running for the community.
At the full town council meeting on Wednesday 4th August, town councillors unanimously voted to support the team in finding a new premises, following the shop’s closure in May.
SHARE Frome is a social initiative originally established by Edventure in association with Frome Town Council, Sustainable Frome and The Cheese and Grain.
The idea is the first of its kind and was born in early 2015. The motivation was to reduce the carbon footprint of the town by promoting borrowing instead of buying, thereby reducing material production and landfill waste. This in turn would save members money and space in their homes, as well as providing a community space for people to donate, volunteer, connect and build skills.
It was located on The Bridge and had been operating from this premises for nine years. However, the premises, owned by Lloyds Banking Group, is part of a larger space that also housed the Halifax branch next door. With the closure of the Halifax branch, the SHARE shop also had to shut its doors.
“Since then, we have secured storage space for our items and gone into ‘hibernation’ until such time as we can find a space, at very low or preferably zero rent, to operate from,” explained a trustee, Anne Hills, at the full town council meeting.
The council’s support follows a challenge from a local resident, who expressed concern about the continued closure of the service and its impact on local families.
He said, “When I first moved to Frome eight years ago, one of the things that so impressed me about this town was the community fridge in the middle of town, which is no longer there. The other thing was the SHARE Shop—I thought it was brilliant. You could borrow things for very minimal amounts of money.
“Both of these facilities were easily accessible, and they were aimed at people who did not have much money. Now, I have a question for you, but I also have a challenge: What are you, the town council, going to do about this? What are you going to do to restore these fine facilities for people who don’t have much money and are struggling to get things like power tools to do their own DIY?”
“I mean, I understand there are issues with money but I also believe that sorting these issues out is not only a matter of money, it is a matter of will and I want to hear from you, the councillors, what you are going to do to put this right.”
Echoing the resident’s views and calling for the town council to ‘bite the bullet’ and help find a site and subsequently help fund the service, Cllr Mel Usher said, “The figures are very impressive despite operating on a shoestring. Providing access to free food and useful household and leisure goods is probably one of the better ways of supporting people in the town who are struggling with rising costs and this may be even better than some of the other things we are doing.”
Cllr Fiona Barrows asked Anne for clarification on whether SHARE needed financial support or only help finding premises, noting that she was ‘confused’ by Cllr Usher’s reference to ‘bite the bullet.’
“We are solvent; we have funds in the bank,” said Anne. “It’s not funding; we don’t need funding; we need a space.”
She added that once a new operating premises has been secured, the team can begin fundraising to cover additional operating costs.
