Dear All, Firstly on behalf of the Cotherstone Old Chapel Project, thank you to all those who have put their names forward as volunteers or supporters. The project won't succeed without a substantial group of committed volunteers, which we now have (around 70 people at the last count).

The other vital factor for a successful project is raising enough money to convert the chapel and get the shop and café up and running. We hope to be able to launch a community share issue in the autumn, at which point we'll be asking for actual investments, from the whole community and beyond.

In the meantime, it would be very useful for us to get an idea of how much people might be prepared to invest. We understand that it's difficult to say with certainty until you've seen the full details of the offer, and your circumstances might change, but if you could let us know an approximate figure, that would really help our planning.

We have updated our business and finance plans to reflect the latest developments. The project does now look very viable purely as a business proposition. See a summary of our business plan here.

Obviously there is no obligation to buy shares, and we still want you on board as a volunteer, supporter or customer if you can't, or choose not to, invest for any reason.

All individual pledges will be strictly confidential, and will only be seen by the Chair (Chris Tarpey) and the Treasurer (Stuart Singleton). The total amount pledged will be shared with the rest of the committee, and may be made public.

A quick summary of how the community share issue will work:

- All investors become members of the Community Benefit Society, and so get a say in how it is run

- It is one member, one vote, so someone with 1 share has the same say as someone with 1000

- As a member of the CBS, you have limited liability, so you will not be responsible for any debts or other liabilities run up by the project

- If finances allow, after 3 or 4 years, members may apply to return some or all of their shares and get the original purchase price returned.

- If finances allow, members may receive a dividend on the shares, again probably not before 3 years.

- It is likely that any investment will be eligible for Social Investment Tax Relief, which means that UK taxpayers can reduce their tax bill by 30% of their investment.