The community shop has been trying, without luck, to find alternative accommodation after it received a notice to quit as of August 31st.

Dawn Shepperd, its founder said:”I’m furious that all the hard work that has been put in to help people is finished because people don’t like to walk past and think it looks a mess. We have nowhere to go. They (The Conservative Club) have given us until the end of August. They say it’s because of complaints they’ve received. They pushed a letter under our door.

“Everyone thinks we get this place for free. We pay £450 a month in rent, plus we pay our bills, for storage and for running the van. The Rotary are considering paying our insurance for our van.

“It is really short-sighted that in a pretty town like this, they want poverty to look pretty. Poverty is not pretty. We deliver all over Dartmouth not just to Townstal, which by the way, some people in Dartmouth call the ‘reservation.’ We need more of what we do not less.”

The letter from the Conservative Club stated: “You may be aware of the feeling of many of the local population, and Conservative Club members with regard to the manner in which you present your goods for sale outside the premises, you are also aware that the Committee of the Conservative Club were fully supportive of the aims and ambitions of your organisation.

“You will also recall that in the early days, in an effort to quell those complaints, the Club did suggest that you moderated the amount of bric-a-brac placed on the footpath in front of the building. Not only did you ignore that suggestion, but you actually increased the amount of goods there and also placed goods on the front railings and in front of the windows.

“As you must have been aware this caused further annoyance to many of the Club members who have voiced their feelings to the Committee. Throughout all that the Committee still supported your operation and its aims.

“However during the recent General Election campaign, the insensitive and inflammatory action of placing Labour Party literature in the front windows of the Conservative Club premises caused further annoyance to even more of the Club members, and also, has lost you the support of the Club Committee.”

Mrs Sheppard continued:”When we first took on the premises, they suggested we put stuff outside to help make people aware we were here. We checked that we were within our rights to do so and we made made sure no obstruction was caused.

“The vote labour flier was posted by someone who didn’t know we were renting from the conservative club. Our address is Unit 2, Ivy Lane. He wasn’t to know. In any event, we took it down with a day and apologised to the Conservative Club.

“We have been trying to find alternative accommodation and get help with the rent but two local charities, Dartmouth Trust and Dartmouth United Charities have not helped.

“We’ve been trying to rent a shop from the Dartmouth Trust but their agent ignores us except to ask us what rent we can offer. Dartmouth United Charities, although they fund Mayflower 400, said our cause was not direct enough and they could not offer us a grant”

Mrs Laura Ivey, a chartered accountant who is the administrator of The Dartmouth Trust and Dartmouth United Charities, explained the contacts with Dartmouth Community Shop: “Dartmouth Trust was not approached directly. Its purpose is to maximise income from its endowments (properties and investments donated to the trust) for the long term benefit of three local charities. Dartmouth United Charities is one of the Dartmouth Trust’s beneficiaries.

“It was approached by the Community Shop earlier this year for funding to cover the Ivy Lane rent for an initial six month contract. DUC considered their request in light of the charity’s governing document and grant criteria and, while on the face of it, Dartmouth Community Shop could be eligible for grant funding, they asked for something for which DUC could not make a grant. DUC is not able to cover an organisation’s core costs, such as rent. The money granted has to directly relieve need.

“It’s true that we did commit funds to Mayflower 400 but it was not for the organisation itself but to do with their sail training event for disabled/ disadvantaged local young people.”

The pending closure of the shop has created much supportive comment on social media.

Michelle Chambers posted the following comment: “You do such good work without you guys I wouldn’t have anything after my house fire last February. You gave me all the essentials, rallied around getting me everything from cutlery to beds mattresses, saucepans, plates, fridge, freezer, lamps absolutely everything and I can’t thank you guys enough - it’s sad to think this day in age that this still happens, you do so much, go above and beyond for everyone. Keep up the good work as without you I think I would have given up - it’s the little things you do that count.”

This was one of 169 posts within the week following Mrs Shepperd’s posted comment on the closure which said: “Some of you may have already heard that we will be closing the community shop at the end of August. The conservative club gave us notice after complaints had been made about us being there.

“It’s not a surprise really as it’s been a fight one way or another to be there since we opened our doors. I think we’ve had more opposition than Costa!

“The people against what we do have said many times to us that we should be ’up there with those people’. If they bothered to come in and speak to us about our work they would learn that the people we help are from all over town and the villages. Lovely families that just need a little help and we have seen many times, it can happen to anyone.

“They think our little shop is not in keeping with the town, just like our stall in the market that they forced us out of with their complaints and graffiti in the toilets. That tourists will be put off somehow by seeing cheap second hand goods for sale. They couldn’t be more wrong.

“Holiday makers and locals love coming in to see what lovely bargains we have, we’ve had tourists going into the market this year looking for us and so happy to find us in the shop. The community shop takes nothing away from our town by being there, only adds to the wonderful community spirit shared by most people here.

“There seems to be a snobbery here from the few who would like the place filled with art and expensive clothes shops. What about the people who live and work here? Where are they supposed to shop?

“We’ve tried to access funding from local charities and been turned down as they think ’we don’t directly provide relief for need’ and applied six times now for a vacant trust shop, who haven’t even replied to us one way or another.

“So, it seems for now Dartmouth will lose it’s community shop, but not the work we do. We’ll carry on from our store and try to find another way of funding ourselves. We will continue to deliver goods to families who are referred to us and try our hardest to get to everyone who needs us. Our volunteers wouldn’t have it any other way. They are some of the most dedicated, hard working people I’ve ever met, they would carry a cooker on their back to help someone if they had to! Perhaps one day, the few will come to realise that this is not a trivial thing we do.

“Delivering a fridge to someone who needs to store their insulin and theirs just broke, furnishing a home for a family who had the courage to leave an abusive partner and had to take just what they could carry, making a home someone who has finally been given a place after years sofa surfing or on the street, replacing a washing machine so a family don’t have to pay high interest for years just so their children can go to school clean. Just a few of the many lives we’ve seen along the way on this journey.

“Thank you to all of you for being part of it. Without you all, none of this would be possible.

We’re going to make our last month the best yet. Come in and see us before we go and show the few we love our community shop. Many blessings lovelies.x”

The concern caused by Dartmouth’s loss of the community shop has registered in Kingswear too. Mike Trevorrow, a councillor in Kingswear, wrote to the Chronicle: ’I note with some concern that people in Dartmouth do not like others selling from the street in order to support those in great need. That’s a shame, although the shame is perhaps on those who are being so uncharitable. We are living in a society that punishes those in greatest need, an absolute moral obscenity, and rewards those who have most. It is a great disgrace in an otherwise wonderful country and we should be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves; if we are not then we need to examine our consciences more closely.”