A COMMUNITY shop and post office that was saved by the community has won a national award.

Barkers of Huby has been crowned the winner of the Yorkshire and North East Award as part of the Rural Community Co-operative Awards 2017.

Barkers is owned and run by the community, with around 500 shareholders and 40 volunteers led by local businesswoman Denise Howard.

As a community benefit society, it trades for the benefit of the whole community and any profits generated are reinvested back into the community rather than to individual shareholders.

Ms Howard said: All our customers, volunteers, staff and supporters are thrilled at this latest award, which recognises the significant contribution Barkers of Huby has made to our local community.

"The shop and post office provide essential services to our rural community which would have been lost if we had not worked together to save it as a community owned enterprise.

"We’ve had two very successful years of trading, and the post office is now open 43 hours a week over six days, the shop is open every day.”

Barkers of Huby competed with shortlisted entries and was crowned the best community owned co-operative in the Yorkshire & North East region.

The awards are run by Plunkett Foundation, the national charity supporting people to set up and run community co-operatives.

James Alcock, general manager at Plunkett Foundation said: “The winners of the Rural Community Co-operative Awards all represent fantastic examples of community enterprise. The award nominations clearly demonstrated community co-operatives at the top of their game; all the winners truly deserve this accolade.

"We wish them all every success for the future.”