Plaxtol Moves to Protect Its Village Shop and Post Office With 'Community Asset' Listing

Plaxtol's village shop and Post Office has been formally listed as an Asset of Community Value, after the parish council asked Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council to give it that status.

The council's Corporate Policy and Communities Manager approved the listing on 3 September. It covers the ground-floor shop at the top of The Street, which trades as Plaxtol Village Stores and houses the village Post Office counter, selling fruit and vegetables, groceries, drinks, household goods and stationery. The shop is trading normally, run by James and Annika Singer.

The nomination came from Plaxtol Parish Council rather than in response to any threat to the business. In its application the parish council described the shop and Post Office as "a facility for the residents of Plaxtol parish and further afield", and "of particular use for the elderly, young people, [the] infirm and those who don't drive".

An Asset of Community Value listing, created by the Localism Act 2011, does not stop an owner selling and does not change what a building can be used for. What it does is trigger a process if the owner ever decides to sell: they must notify the council, and a six-week window opens in which a community group can register an interest in bidding. If one does, a six-month moratorium follows, during which the sale cannot be completed - time for the community to raise money and put an offer together. The owner is not obliged to accept it.

The listing lasts five years. The borough council also renewed the Asset of Community Value listing for the Windmill pub in early September. For Plaxtol, the parish council's move is a low-cost insurance policy for a shop it clearly regards as irreplaceable. Source: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council