THE award winning Village Shop in Feckenham is celebrating the opening of its brand new coffee shop, which launched last Saturday.

The Village Shop, in Droitwich Road, which has been supported by the Plunkett Foundation’s Village CORE programme, is a lively hub of village life and is community-owned and run, with a team of almost 100 village volunteers behind it.

The coffee shop is part of stage 2 of work at the shop, and it was created in space which was not needed in the stock room, increasing the capacity of the shop by 40 per cent.

The coffee shop will serve freshly ground coffee, tea, cakes, pastries and sandwiches and has Wifi.

And customers will be able to eat and drink from crockery which was specially designed for the coffee shop.

Community shop chairman John Calvert said: “This is an extremely exciting venture and we believe it will prove popular amongst the community.

“Trade at the coffee shop, which is open seven days a week, has been growing steadily since its launch so we’re really pleased.

“What makes all of this so gratifying is that Feckenham Shop was created by the community, for the community, and it’s thriving at a time when many shops and businesses are closing down.”

The cost of the coffee shop was £40,000, and this has already been covered by fundraising, money from the local authority, the Lottery and the Plunkett Foundation.

Present at the coffee shop opening was MP Karen Lumley, and representatives from Redditch Council, the county council, the contractors who did the building work and the shop’s volunteer team The community shop celebrated earlier this year with the news it had won Best Village Shop and Post Office at the Countryside Alliance Awards at the House of Lords in February.