A pledge campaign to help villagers purchase their post office and shop has reached more than £150,000 and has been so popular that organisers have extended the scheme.
The Hoxne Community Post Office Group, led by resident Mike Barton, is trying to secure funds to take on the Low Street site when the current owner retires.
Its pledge campaign, which was meant to finish on April 14, has now been extended to the end on May to try to hit their £200,000 target.
Mr Barton said: “We had heard from many people that they wanted to pledge but had not finished the paperwork yet or were away, so we thought we would extend the deadline.
“This will give us the best chance of getting as many pledges as possible for the next step and, since we extended it, we have had quite a few more pledges from that, so it was definitely worth doing it.”
The campaign has so far raised £156,470 from 525 people, which Mr Barton said had exceeded expectations.
“I would like to send a massive thank you to everyone who had pledged. We had a target of around 300 people in mind, so to get 525 is just incredible,” he said.
“Hoxne parish has attributed 70 per cent of those, but the other 30 has come from the likes of Scole, Brome, Oakley and Eye, with quite a few from Diss, too, which has been really encouraging.”
The next part of the process is writing up a bid for government funding, which the group has already put together.
Mr Barton added: “There is a bidding window in May, which is the final one as they are ending this grant scheme due to the upcoming elections – so it is now or never.
“We have done so much work on this, for more than a year and a half now, which feels like a long time ago, so we are super confident.
“We just need a bit of luck and for people to back us, which loads have done so far.”
It is estimated that the whole project could cost £683,232, which includes an initial £411,999 to buy the building, around £140,000 for repair work on the roof, £15,316 on solar panels for the site, and other associated costs.
Not only is the group set to bid for a grant from the Government, but it is also approaching Mid Suffolk District Council for about £50,000, and the National Lottery for a similar amount.
At a meeting held to discuss the group’s progress on Tuesday night, Mr Barton said they shared the latest pledge total, as well as sales forecasts as part of the business plan.
“We had a question-and-answer session as well and it gave the public the chance to look us in eye and see what we were about.
“The feedback we got was that people said they felt reassured as we shared a level of detail not given before and they felt we knew what we were doing – so we hope we can deliver.”
To find out more about the group and how to pledge, go to the Hoxne Community Post Office Facebook group.
