Shares in the community benefit society are £100 each. A minimum pledge of £100 entitles you to become a member of the Community Share Scheme, where each £100 represents one share. 

If you would prefer not to become a member of the community share scheme, and instead make a straightforward donation you can show your support by donating to our GoFundMe crowdfund and give any amount, or drop your donation into one of the collection boxes at the Tuesday morning market held in the Hatherleigh community centre. 

Ideally as soon as possible. However we are waiting for further instructions as to how to effect the share issue. Our current estimate is late summer, early autumn of 2024.

We will keep you updated and give you as much notice as we can before we call on you all to provide your pledged amounts.

As a shareholder, you will be a member of the Community Benefit Society and have a right to vote in meetings. Your liability is strictly limited to the amount you pay into the society (invest in shares). If everything went wrong you would only lose your initial stake – no more.

As a shareholder in our Community Benefit Society, it’s important to understand the extent of your financial commitment. In legal terms, your liability is limited strictly to your initial investment (the amount you paid for your shares). This means that should the society face insolvency, your financial responsibility does not extend beyond the amount you have initially contributed as a shareholder.

There is no obligation nor requirement for shareholders to cover any further losses beyond their original stake. This limited liability is a fundamental principle, ensuring that your exposure to financial risk is capped, protecting your personal finances beyond your initial investment.

Liability is limited to the share value – i.e. if you pay £100 for a share, in unlikely event that the market trades badly, or the community share scheme becomes insolvent the worst that would happen is that you would loose the value of your shares. 

As its name suggests, the purpose of a community benefit society is for the benefit of the community. It may be in the future that the society may make sufficient money to pay an amount to its shareholders but as the purpose of the society is altruistic, certainly initially, any ‘profit’ is to be applied for the betterment of the society and to support the market as a whole.

No, not at all – shares in the community benefit society can be purchased by anyone.

The community benefit society “Hatherleigh Community Market Limited” is registered at Companies House and with the Financial Conduct Authority and is obliged to abide by the rules of both.

The society must operate under a prescribed set of rules by a member-appointed committee.

A community benefit society is an equitable organisation and as such, more shares do not equal more votes.

Voting rights are on a one vote per member, no matter the number of shares a member holds. 

A share can be bequeathed in a share-holder’s Will. If not, the value of the share will be a debt to the shareholder’s estate and will ultimately be repaid to the personal representatives.

Their share(s) are transferable under the terms of a shareholder’s Will.

The community benefit society is not permitted to sell the asset and it must be transferred to one or more community organisations with the same objectives as the community benefit society. This may be another similar organisation established by the Plunkett Foundation

We hope to run a minimum of 3 days a week of activity on the new market site, two of which will likely be market days, and one of which a regular car boot. In addition to this we are hoping to to host other larger one off events such as street food events, food fairs, craft fairs, antiques and salvage fairs, and Christmas markets.

No, we see the new market site and community centre and other community facilities such as the cricket club as having very different purposes.

The new market site will be primarily for commerce, and the community centre is primarily a venue for community groups, entertainment and the children’s centre. Similarly the cricket club is for recreation purposes.

Longterm, the community centre is not a suitable venue to host the community market. Moving the market to the community centre was always meant to be a temporary transitional arrangement.

• There is not enough parking capacity at the community centre to support traders and market users on market days. This particularly impacts people with mobility issues wishing to access the market. It also causes safety concerns with people parking on the pavements.
• There is not enough capacity to fully support both the auction and the traders in the space available. This results in some traders having to be turned away by the market operator.
• The community centre is not a suitable venue to host fur and feather auctions for hygiene reasons.