Village defies shop trend
The people of Broughton have decided to reverse a national trend of shop closures with a bid to re-open the single one which served their community for many years until its recent closure.
The nearest shopping facilities for the villagers are now several miles away in Biggar via rural roads which are often difficult to travel in winter months. They have formed a Broughton Shop Development Group and last week held a public meeting in the village hall at which plans to purchase the property and re-open it as a Community Shop were unveiled.
The group has already won an SSE Clyde Borders Community Fund grant to empoy a community business consultant and is looking at various ways of financing and running such a business. A spokesperson said that the backing of as many of the village population as possible for the scheme was the most important factor of all.