On a bright morning, nestled between the green fells of the Yorkshire Dales, there is a steady stream of cars queuing for the two petrol pumps at Dale Head Garage in Hawes, one of England’s remotest market towns. The small Yorkshire-stone cabin, where customers can buy coffee from a self-serve machine as they pay for their fuel, is busy with locals who all know one another and have plenty to chat about.

But the gossip isn’t just about the weather, but about the progress of the community in their bid to buy the petrol station – which will make it the first crowdsourced purchase of a forecourt in the UK.

Indeed, as the rest of the country grapples with bad news at the petrol pumps, residents of Hawes – a town best known for the world-famous Wensleydale cheese creamery down the road – are fuelling their own reasons for hope.

Some 240 residents in the pretty, rural parish, which is home to only 1,800 people in total, are rallying round to keep their community-run petrol station – as well as vital services, including a bus route, library and post office, all sustained by profits from the garage – in local hands. The garage, which is valued at £360,000, is currently owned by a private pension fund, which has given Hawes residents first refusal.

Minerva SIPP, based in nearby Holmfirth, is looking to sell the asset and have offered a six-month preferential window to their tenants who are moving fast to establish a community benefit society. They have already lodged applications for three additional community grants to shore up residents’ contributions and reach the total.

It is a project fuelled by community spirit, but there is also a financial incentive, too: under the plan, local investors would receive a four per cent annual return on their investments – as well as 4p per litre off the pump price of fuel which, yesterday, was £1.59 for unleaded and £1.69 for diesel, as opposed to £1.79 for diesel in other major North Yorkshire towns.

Locals across the Wensleydale, Upper Swaledale and Garsdale areas have each pledged between £1,000 to over £10,000 to join the project. The nearest petrol station to Dale Head is 17 miles away, in Ingleton; another 24-hour forecourt is further still, over 20 miles away.

David Colley is a parish council member and director of the Upper Dales Community Partnership, which currently leases the garage and is behind the buyout plans. “We think this is one of the most beautiful places in the country,” he says. “We’re not looking for someone from the outside to swoop in. Instead, we’d love to see lots of £1,000 investments making this a true community asset. Money off the pump price is a small but – in the economic climate – valuable incentive, just as anyone investing in a business might be offered. “We’re not there yet, but we’re hugely optimistic about this plan because of the support we’ve seen.”