Setting up the Society
Back in the summer of 2024 a small group of local Wadsworth people got their heads together and agreed we needed to do something to save our lovely local Post Office, shop and café. The property and business had been up for sale for about 6 months with no serious offers, and there was concern in the community that this local treasure might be lost. We sent out a survey, and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from 243 respondents followed by a well-supported public meeting, spurred us into action!
We were fortunate to have a local history of successful community owned businesses, and people with expertise from those ventures within our group, so we set about registering a Community Benefit Society, and defining a structure for our organisation that allowed local people to get involved at the level they chose.
On 30th January 2025, Wadsworth Area Community Assets Limited (WACA) was registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 as a Community Benefit Society. This means we are an accountable body (to the Financial Conduct Authority) and able to apply for grants and funding.
We were careful to set up the Society so as not to restrict our focus solely to the Post Office, that’s why we chose the name “Wadsworth Area Community Assets” to imply a wider remit. We’d like to thank Wadsworth Parish Council for the grant that they gave us to support the Society set up costs.
The WACA Board of Directors
Our Founding Directors were Steven Dole, Helen Plaice (chair), Nigel Sagar (treasurer) and Jane Summers (secretary) – 4 of the volunteers who stepped up from the initial meeting in 2024.
According to our rules, WACA can have up to 9 Directors – those who are responsible for “managing the society’s affairs with integrity and in the best interests of the members and the society itself”.
Currently, as of November 2025, we have 7 Directors: Vanessa Barry, William Black (Society Secretary), Julia Brady, Steven Dole (Minutes Secretary), Helen Plaice (Chair), Nigel Sagar (Treasurer), and Jenny Slaughter.
We are all volunteers and are supported by other members of the local community who offer their time and expertise on Working Groups for specific projects. The remaining 2 Director positions are left vacant in order to allow secondment of Director(s) with specific knowledge, skills and/or roles that might be required for individual projects.
Advisors to the Board: Patrick Morrello (Accountant with Third Sector Accountancy), and Hannah Nadim (241 Cooperators Consultant).
You can find more about how we work on the “Information” page of this website.
