A Colne Valley co-operative has helped West Yorkshire become a hotspot for community activism.

The county has been listed as one of the 10 areas in the UK where people are most likely to take ownership of key local assets – from pubs and shops to wind turbines.

The findings come in a report by Co-operatives UK which monitored community shares schemes in which local people pool their resources to buy and run local enterprises co-operatively.

It found that in West Yorkshire 500 people have invested in five community share schemes, raising £550,000 in total. This brings West Yorkshire in at 10th in the league of the community share hotspots.

The schemes include Slaithwaite Co-operative, which raised £30,000 from 199 people in order to open the Green Valley Grocer and save a local store.

Others include the Fox and Goose in Hebden Bridge which raised £130,000 from 125 people to keep a favourite local pub open and Pennine Community Power, which raised £29,000 from 65 people to put a community-owned wind turbine at Blackshaw Head, near Hebden Bridge.

Camilla Govan, of Slaithwaite Co-operative, said: “When our greengrocer was set to close we decided to form a co-operative to take it over and prevent the village losing a key local service. Our village centre has become increasingly vibrant ever since.

“Being a co-op brings many benefits. Instead of a single owner or manager we have over 277 owners, a board of 12 directors, a manager and a staff team of four people, all working together.”

The store will face more competition when Aldi opens a store in the village later this year.

But she said: “We aspire to be a 21st century village greengrocer and these resources are helping us build a future. We will need them all to face our latest challenge of a new supermarket coming to Slaithwaite in the autumn.”

The boom in community shares in West Yorkshire is part of a nationwide trend, according to Co-operatives UK. In the last five years, almost 40,000 local people have invested nearly £40m in more than 200 share issues across the country.

Ed Mayo, secretary-general of Co-operatives UK, said: “In our era of austerity and big business, community share issues are one of the fastest growing and most reassuring trends. When people find their local pub, their football club or their shop under threat, they band together to save it.

Oxfordshire topped the table for community shares hotspots with 10 schemes supported by 9,000 members raising £5m. Greater Manchester was second with nine schemes backed by 3,000 members raising £2.5m while Cumbria was third with nine schemes, 2,200 members and £1.8m raised.

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