A VILLAGE shop which was taken on by the community following the death of its owner has scooped an award.

The community of Cockburnspath was facing up to the possibility of not having a vital resource during the Covid-19 pandemic when the owner passed away in 2020.

A group was set up and brought new life to the shop, which has scooped the Eastern Borders Development Association (EBDA) Award for 2022.

A spokesperson for the shop said: “Working in a model partnership, the community council and community development facilitator Jennie Sutton, with a group of local residents, formed Cockburnspath Community Enterprise Ltd, a not-for-profit company, to re-establish a shop adjacent to the village hall, to serve the village and the wider local community.

“The success of the venture so impressed the trustees of EBDA Award – established in 1976 to recognise outstanding achievements in the social, economic and environmental fields in the Scottish Borders and north Northumberland – that they made their Award for 2022 to the Community Enterprise company and, at an award ceremony in Berwick Town Hall, EBDA trustee and Mayor of Berwick Councillor Mike Greener presented the award certificate to Richard Copland of the community group.”