A SHOP which generates vital profits to keep community projects in the Deeside area running has re-located - and enjoyed an 'incredible' opening day.

The Hippy Shop originally opened in July 2017 in order to support and sustain community projects.

It is run by the RainbowBiz CIC team - a social enterprise running projects and events throughout Flintshire.

The Hippy Shop helps generate regular much needed income to sustain a walking group, a gardening group (Digging Deeside), the Queensferry-based Music Mates project and even a weekly karaoke and disco event.

Over the weekend, the RainbowBiz team was celebrating the opening of their new shop.

The shop - which used to be home to NWK9 Raw Food Suppliers on Shotton High Street - officially opened on Saturday, June 17.

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The team was joined by the likes of Lord Barry Jones, Mark Tami MP, local councillors and more to mark the occasion.

Speaking at the opening, after cutting the ribbon, Lord Jones, who has also been a patron of Rainbow Biz from day one, said: "It's history today, we've not had a meeting like this in Shotton on the pavement since 1969 when the Salvation Army were here. It's lovely of you all to turn out."

The Leader:

PICTURE by Phillip Jones shows Lord Barry Jones getting ready to cut the ribbon to the Hippy Shop in Shotton on Saturday, June 17.

The Hippy Shop sells a range of items from ethnic fairtrade clothing to jewellery, crystals and wooden carvings.

A lot of their gifts are sourced from as far away as India, Thailand and Guatemala.

All of its profits go back into supporting much-needed projects in the local community.

Rainbow Biz CIC co-founder Sue Oliver told the Leader: "The Hippy Shop and our community projects are all about coming together and making people feel accepted.

"Some of these - like the gardening group - have been running since 2014 and so they're vital.

"We were based in Mold for a period of six years, but have decided to move to Deeside to be closer to the projects we run."

Fellow co-founder Sarah Way added: "The opening day was incredible. It was so lovely to see friends, family and everyone else here.

"We even had some of our customers from Mold come here especially to celebrate with us.

"We had international food from Turkey and other countries on the day to showcase the very best of Shotton High Street."

The Hippy Shop is now open 10am to 4pm every day except Tuesday and Sunday.