Dorset Echo - News, Sport, Homes, Jobs, Cars and Local Information in Weymouth, Portland

All stand together

From the Echo, first published Tuesday 29th Oct 2002.

AS working people from all over the country celebrated Dorset's contribution to the Labour Movement at the summer's Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, another landmark of the Left is about to pass almost unnoticed.

This month sees the 110th anniversary of Parkstone's first Co-op - the oldest in the area still serving the same community. Today's Co-op supermarket on Ashley Road can trace its roots back to the original shop which replaced two cottages in Mansfield Hill.

Parkstone and Bournemouth Co-operative Society paid the first of the famous dividends in January, 1893 - a whopping 9d - to its 147 members.

And it's a tradition that continues to this day.

When the Co-op reintroduced its Divi earlier this year it started a new scheme called Community Dividend. Like the loyalty card schemes operated by other stores, shoppers earn a penny for every pound they spend; and 3p for every pound they spend on Co-op brand products.

But unlike other schemes, the Divi is paid out in cash twice a year. Customers can then elect to contribute the odd pence they have earned to the Community Dividend pot which makes grants to projects in the local area.

In this way, this year the Co-op has already bought computer equipment for the Dolphin Credit Union in Poole.

"It means people can pay into a pot that will serve their own area," says Andrew North, the Co-op's south west regional secretary.

"It should amount to hundreds of thousands of pounds for the community and we welcome all applications, although we usually like to put money towards something tangible rather than simply contribute to a fund.

"It means local people can contribute towards local projects, like the Dolphin Credit Union which applied for computer equipment, and we hope to provide it with office space in one of our local stores."

Although there is a record of a co-operative as far back as 1830, with a shop and office in Market Place, the earliest efforts were hampered by extortionate parish rates.

The modern movement made its first impact in 1891 when the Bournemouth Co-operative Society opened a shop in Windham Road that traded until 1906.

The united Parkstone and Bournemouth Society lit a beacon that saw countless stores and societies open across the area until, in 1976, Southampton Co-operative Society merged with the Wessex Society and came under the wing of Co-operative Retail Services to create the country's largest society.

Today's Co-operative Group has spent £12 million modernising stores in the south-west, with another £5.25 million to be spent today.

Application forms for the Co-op Community Dividend are available at Co-op stores in Parkstone, Bournemouth (Holdenhurst Road), Christchurch, Hamworthy, Wareham and Swanage. Alternatively, write to Co-operative Group CWS, FREEPOST SWB 31171, Cullompton, BX15 2ZZ; or call 08457 573130.

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