A COMMUNITY shop in a village near Malvern is launching a share sale as the first step towards building permanent premises.

The Alfrick and Lulsley Community Shop opened in 2012, following the closure of the last village store, and since then has gone from strength to strength, say organisers.

The shop currently operates from a portable building sited next to Alfrick Village Hall, but the long-term plan is to build a permanent home for the shop.

And local residents are being invited to two open mornings designed to encourage them to invest in the next stage of the project.

Alan Soper, chair of the committee which runs the shop, said: "After our last village shop closed in 2011, we were left with nothing, and that's why we opened the community shop, funded by subscriptions from local people and from grants.

"We're now coming up to our third birthday in June, and in that time we've gone from strength to strength, with our turnover increasing year on year.

"The shop is entirely run by volunteers and we've got a roster of between 70 and 80 volunteers who give their time to keep it going. We added a post office two years ago, and we've got a tiny cafe as well, and although it's small, it's become the social centre for the village. People are always coming in for coffee and a chat."

The shop committee estimates that a permanent building will cost about £240,000, which Mr Soper freely admits is ambitious. "But we've been ambitious in the past and it's worked out, so we're optimistic," he said.

The first stage is to raise £40,000 by selling shares in the shop company, and the shop committee is hosting open mornings in the village hall on Saturdays May 16 and 23 at 10.30am to encourage villagers to invest.

Mr Soper said: "All are welcome to come and support a project which is very much part of the local community."

Last year, the shop won second place in the UK Rural Community Ownership Awards for the second year running.