Rye Community Shop has benefited many people and organisations in Rye and the local area as they have consistently raised money for deserving causes generated from the sale of donated goods from their shop in Cinque Ports Street, run so successfully by a dedicated team of volunteers, managed by a board of trustees currently chaired by Kate Sims.
The shop is currently closed and, having had a comprehensive risk assessment, it now faces an uncertain future for two reasons. Firstly, because of government advice on health and safety precautions, unlike other charity shops it does not have a central store where donations can be isolated for 72 hours, nor large premises where donations can be sorted safely by volunteers.
It is also difficult to socially distance staff members from each other, let alone customers, and the current trustees, having a duty of care to the volunteers and customers, have decided to keep it closed for now.
Secondly, the shop can only function if a minimum of three trustees can be found as the current trustees wish to stand down after five years in post. It will be necessary for the new trustees to take over the lease and, whilst there have been enquiries from interested parties, nothing has yet been finalised.
Rye Community Shop have given so much to the local community and now it’s payback time. If you can help them by becoming a trustee, or know of someone who may be interested, please contact Kate Sims as soon as possible on kate2sims@aol.com.
We don’t want to lose such a valuable asset to the town but, unless we can help Kate and her team of volunteers now, this valuable source of funding, which has benefitted so many local organisations across all parts of the local community, will be lost for good.
Editor’s note: Hopefully the community shop, like many other organisations and businesses, can find ways of adapting (for now) to government requirements during the pandemic. Finding new trustees though is more long term and vital as the shop works for the community at large, and helps, and has helped, a huge variety of local organisations provide local services, and hopefully some new trustees can be found.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .
Taking over a lease is a lot to ask of a new trustee. Why not set up a company limited by guarantee and have that enter into the lease agreement?
The Trustees being named on the lease is the requirement of the Landlord. We are a CIC limited by guarantee but a 5 year lease is pretty standard for any retail outlet. Being named on the lease is not an issue so long as enough money is ringfenced in the accounts to cover the 6 month notice period necessary to terminate the lease.