A PARISH council has decided it won't yet make an offer on a village shop in Herefordshire, despite a passionate group of locals looking at ways to save it.

Villagers had set up a group to save the post office and general stores in Orleton, north of Leominster, but soon learned it would be difficult to raise the funds to buy the building.

So the group, Save Orleton Shop, asked the local parish council if it could buy the building, in Kitchen Hill Road, as the owners of 20 years Andrew and Gerry Summers decided to retire.

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After a meeting on January 27, an Orleton Parish Council spokesperson said councillors heard details of a meeting with the vendors and a potential negotiating strategy going forward.

And the council then took the decision to suspend making an offer for the time being because of the potential private sale

"It is understood that the shop and post office is to be put on the market, and it is hoped that this will result in a successful private sale," the spokesperson said.

Ann Turtle, secretary of the Save Orleton Shop group, said the option to form a community benefit society was unviable as the group couldn't raise enough money to buy the shop outright.

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"We were strongly advised that we did not fit the de facto criteria for the Government match-funding grant," she added.

"It was therefore decided to ask the parish council to investigate the purchase of the shop, rather than to continue down a CBS route.

"This was a collective and near-unanimous decision of the well-attended village meeting in November 2021."