Hundreds celebrate opening of East Boldre Community Stores, officially opened by former Dire Straits guitarist John Illsley

HUNDREDS of people turned out to celebrate the launch of a new community store in East Boldre, marking the culmination of a six-year, £700,000 fundraising project.

The state-of-the-art facility, which also features a large community room, exhibition space and café, was officially opened on Monday morning by former Dire Straits guitarist John Illsley.

Shelves have been packed with a colourful range of fruit and vegetables, essential items, luxury goods and local produce. The shop features a post office counter, and offers newspapers and National Lottery tickets sales as well as hot pastries and takeaway tea and coffee.

Local producers are championed in display areas, with information boards about each producer.

Speaking at the launch, voluntary project coordinator Rebecca Gabzdyl said: “We have faced delay after delay but we are here today.”

Sadly, the committee’s longstanding chair Nick Thompson passed away recently, just weeks before the official opening.

Rebecca added: “We remember our lovely Nick, we have a lovely bench to commemorate him, it’s not the same as having him here with us.

“We know that getting to this point was so important to him so we’d just like to remember him as we open today.”

John Illsley was invited to officially open the new community store by cutting the ribbon. He described the shop as a “good news” story.

He continued: “It’s a fantastic achievement so congratulations. I cannot say any more than that and just let’s use it as much as possible and keep it going because if we don’t use it we will lose it.”

As previously reported, the East Boldre Community Stores committee faced a series of setbacks before launching the project to buy and convert the former Baptist Church.

They subsequently raised £225,000 through a community share offer and received a £299,500 Community Ownership Fund award from the government’s Levelling Up scheme, enabling the purchase of the building in May 2023.

Funding for internal alterations worth £54,000 was awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and further donations came in from East Boldre Parish Council, the county and district councils and the Beaulieu Beaufort Foundation.

For more information visit www.eastboldrecommunitystores.com