Published on: Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Last updated: Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Volunteers at Harwich rail station have beenrecognised with a national award.
The team, led by Georgeta Busuioc and SueRobinson, supported by the Essex & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnershipand train operator Abellio Greater Anglia, scooped the Small Projects Award atthe Community Rail Awards held in Torquay last week for their transformation ofthe station garden.
Georgeta and Sue became adopters of the stationin 2014 and, with their team of helpers, set about clearing weeds, rubble andrubbish from a disused area of the station to create a beautiful garden teemingwith flowers and plants, most of which were donated by the volunteers and localpeople.
They also planted the tubs on the stationplatforms to create a bright welcome for station users and visitors to thetown.
The project, which took five weeks tocomplete in 2014, was achieved for under £500 and the garden, carefully tendedby Sue and Georgeta, has brought pleasure to station visitors ever since,leading to the Community Rail Award.
Supportersof the project included the Harwich Town Residents’ Association, Friends of theEarth, Abellio Greater Anglia, the Essex & South Suffolk CRP, Cheryl Thompson, the station adopter for nearby DovercourtStation, the Harwich Mayflower Project, which is based at Harwich Town Stationand the Harwich Brewery.
Essex County Council is alead partner in the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership. Cllr RodneyBass, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Highways and Transportation said:“By supporting this important partnership, we are encouraging people to makethe best use of our branch train lines in the county.
“This prize-winning project improves people’s enjoyment of train traveland my congratulations and thanks go to the volunteers who put in so much hardwork to transform the grounds of Harwich station.”
Rebecca Richardson, Partnerships Officer for Abellio GreaterAnglia, commented:
"It's great to see this partnership approach and the effortsof our station adopters and community volunteers receiving nationalrecognition. Somepeople said it was an impossible task as the area hadn’t been touched for manyyears. However, Sue and Georgeta were so determined that this would work thattheir ‘can do’ approach motivated everyone and got the whole communityinvolved. The garden has been transformed and is now a lovely place to pass byand look at and this award is very well-deserved.
“We'll continue to worktogether to develop community rail lines and we are backing that commitmentwith the further 20% increase in funding we have made as part of current shortfranchise to October 2016."