A RURAL oasis in the middle of one of Europe’s biggest housing estates is becoming a co-operative as it strives to secure its long-term future.

Lower Shaw Farm, in West Swindon, is a three-acre community resource, which for 30 years has given adults and children the chance to work, learn, and play among organic crops and livestock.

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OLDER and disabled people who want to remain independent can now get help with jobs around the house, thanks to the new Handyperson Plus service from Stroud Care & Repair.

The new service was launched after support from Co-operative Futures through the Stepping Up programme, which helps community and voluntary organisations become more financially sustainable in particularly in the face of public sector funding cuts.

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A two-week celebration showcasing Stroud’s food and drink producers and outlets is becoming part of the co-operative movement.

Stroud Food and Drink Festival has been organised for the past two years by Stroud Town Council, after being launched by mayor Andy Read.

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CO-OPERATIVE Futures, a business development agency that encourages the formation of new co-operatives and other community owned enterprises in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire has welcomed the news that co-operative principles will be at the heart of the next Labour manifesto.

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, this week said he would draw heavily on the manifesto of the Co-operative Party – a separate political party allied to Labour – in preparing his own programme.

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A business development agency that encourages the formation of new co-operatives and other community owned enterprises in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire celebrated its 10th anniversary this weekend with the news that it had experienced its most successful year ever.

Jo White, a director of Gloucester-based Co-operative Futures, told delegates the company had registered, or was in the process of registering, 30 co-operative start-ups – about the same number that it registered during the entire period from 2000 to 2009.

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Ed Mayo, newly-appointed secretary general of Co-operatives UK, will be leading the clarion call when members of the co-operative movement are urged to Think, Walk and Talk Co-operative at a conference in January.

Co-operative Futures 2010 will be held in Swindon on Friday, January 29 and Saturday, January 30 and the event aims to inspire delegates to develop ever more co-operative ways of doing business.

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A budding co-operative hopes Gloucestershire families will dig their new business venture: a veggie box scheme without the boxes.

Stroud-based Down to Earth will create vegetable patches at the homes of people who like the idea of organic produce grown in their own garden, but lack the time or enthusiasm to spend hours at the end of a fork or spade.

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An Oxford company that makes bread from ancient forms of grain has used its loaf and become a co-operative, thanks to some free business advice and support from the newly-launched Co-operative Enterprise Hub.

The Oxford Bread Group (OBG) was founded in April by archaeological botanist John Letts and his wife Sally Lane. It now supplies 170 members of the local community with an Oxford Loaf – with its distinctive O and X design – every week, and demand is growing.

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Why wouldn’t an organisation owned by its customers strive to give them the best possible service?

This was the question asked by Matt Lane of the Phone Co-op based in Chipping Norton during an Introduction to Social Enterprise in Oxfordshire event on Thursday, November 19 to celebrate Social Enterprise Day.

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A Marlborough company which was established to run and promote arts and culture events in the town has received free business advice and support through the newly-launched Co-operative Enterprise Hub.

We Love Marlborough, which conceives, plans and runs public events and provides support for arts enthusiasts and practitioners – including a free what’s on guide through its website, www.welovemarlborough.co.uk – applied to the hub for help with its strategic and operational business planning.

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Allowing busy mums to attend adult education classes will now be child’s play, after a Swindon co-operative won a major contract to provide creche facilities at educational establishments.

Swindon Child Carers – the mobile creche provider – has landed a £50,000 contract with Swindon Borough Council, with the support of Co-operative Futures.

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Co-operative businesses in the region have joined forces to tackle the longest, steepest, highest charity challenge in England.

Jim Pettipher of Co-operative Futures in Gloucester, Dan Harris from Oxford Cycle Workshop and Paul Rowlands of design and communications agency Leadout will take part in the Great Lakeland Challenge in the Lake District on Friday, September 11.

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The sky's the limit for a new business that tells customers to take a running jump.

Cloudbase Paragliding School, based in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire, is one of only two companies with which thrill-seekers can learn the sport in a large geographical area from Avon to Berkshire, Gloucestershire to Hampshire, and Oxfordshire to Wiltshire

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More and more small and medium sized firms are abandoning traditional business models and becoming co-operatives, says an agency formed to develop them.

And the south west co-operative movement is expanding more quickly than any other region in the UK, says Co-operative Futures, a Gloucester-based agency, funded by Midcounties Co-operative Ltd, which promotes the co-operative business model across Gloucestershire, Swindon, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire.

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A Wiltshire company that recycles unwanted wood from building sites is doing such a roaring trade in firewood and kindling that it needs to find more suppliers.

Wiltshire Wood Recycling creates a wide range of products from unwanted wood from building sites and other industries, whilst turning uncraftable wood like pallets into firewood and kindling, which is sold from the company’s north Wiltshire base and in shops throughout the area.

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An Oxford company that recycles unwanted bikes – offering affordable green transport solutions for the city – is giving ‘pedal power to the people’ by becoming a workers’ co-operative.

Under the new structure, the eleven full-time and part-time members of staff at the Cowley-based Oxford Cycle Workshop will become more than just another spoke in the wheel, receiving equal pay and an equal say in decisions that will help the business grow and make money.

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