BROADWINDSOR Community Stores, which has been open for just over a year, has taken the runner-up slot in a national competition.

The shop, which operates from the old telephone exchange in Drimpton Road, came second in the ‘Better Services’ category of the UK Rural Ownership Awards run by the Plunkett Foundation.

Fraser Hughes, shop committee chairman, said: “Plunkett received a large number of entries from across the UK for the awards. Obviously we are disappointed not to win, but the standard was very high, so to be even runner-up is a massive achievement for the shop and everyone associated with it.”

The awards were held for the first time this year to celebrate the people who deliver vital services to their community.

Peter Couchman, chief executive at Plunkett, said the awards recognised the wide range of rural and community enterprises that help rural communities through community ownership to take control of the issues affecting them.

“It has been a difficult task to pick winners from the enterprises shortlisted; every one of them is fantastic in their own right,” he said.