Back community-run businesses in the city

Community-run businesses in Sussex will be showcasing their wares this weekend to showcase what they've got to offer.
Stoneham BakehouseStoneham Bakehouse
Stoneham Bakehouse

In Brighton and Hove, community pub The Bevy has organised a day of events on Saturday, starting with parkrun and a plant sale in the morning, a research project and film debut in the afternoon and finishing with Culture Clash where local rappers, poets and comedians will go head to head in battle.

The Bevy was taken on by the community in December 2014, and holds a number of events for Bevendean residents.

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Hove bakery Stoneham Bakehouse will celebrate its first birthday on Saturday with balloons and samples from 10am to 1pm.

The Big Lemon walking tourThe Big Lemon walking tour
The Big Lemon walking tour

The baking group started out in the kitchen of founder Simon Cobb, but the group now has its very own bakery on Stoneham Road.

And from today (Friday) to Monday, The Big Lemon Bus Company will take people on a walking holiday where they can complete the whole western section of the South Downs from Winchester to Amberley.

It’s all part of the Community Business Weekend which takes place this weekend organised by Power to Change, and offers a unique opportunity for community businesses to open their doors for local people to visit and see how they can get involved.

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This comes as a recent survey by Power to Change found that two-thirds (68 per cent) in the south east said they were frustrated in their local area and half (50 per cent) were ready to set up a community business to take power into their own hands

The majority surveyed in the south east (79 per cent) want to see local people take on the running of places and services neglected for so long – from pubs to hubs, shops to cinemas, farms to parks.

Peter Jenkins, interim chief executive at Power to Change, said: “Community businesses are a great example of local people taking power into their own hands.

“Every day tens of thousands of people get up and go to work at one of the 7,000 community businesses in England. Hundreds of thousands of us shop, visit or benefit from them directly, but they are still relatively unknown.

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“That’s why Community Business Weekend is so important. It shines a light on these community-run gems that bring not only much needed services and spaces to a community but boost local economies and reinvest the profits for the benefit of local people.”

He said communities were ‘best placed to know what their neighbourhoods need and what works’.

For more information on the weekend, visit: {http://www.communitybusinessweekend.org|www.communitybusinessweekend.org