Kim Burrows writes ….

The RHS Britain in Bloom present the Friends of Reddish South Station with ‘Railway Station of the Year’ Award

The ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ awards are part of the larger Britain In Bloom annual awards which celebrates the smaller projects in each region of Britain. There are over 700 participant groups in the North West of England alone, and the presentations take place over 3 days.

The work done by volunteers in every corner of the country is astonishing and lights up the most unexpected areas of urban areas as well as enhancing Hospices, Railway Stations and Civic spaces.

This is the fourth time the Friends of Reddish South Station have entered and have been lucky to receive an ‘Outstanding’ level 5 each time.

This year however, we had one of the RHS Britain in Bloom discretionary awards presented to us by Judge David Bielawski for the Best Station of the Year for NW England.

We were absolutely delighted the receive the award – special thanks should go to the architect of our garden, Noel Henry, as well as the work done by the committee and Friends over the last 15 years.

The picture shows Noel, David Bielawski and Chairman Tom Grundy.

Of course the Woodsmoor Owls have to be dressed for Halloween !!

Early in October, chair of Friends of Goostrey Station (FoGS) Craig Sidebotham represented the group at a meeting in Leeds. Employees from Northern, TransPennine Express and Network Rail were celebrating the positive impact of Community Rail across the country. They also heard about preparations for the transition to Great British Railways.

During the day, Craig was thrilled to receive an award for achieving silver status in the Wildlife Friendly Station scheme. This was a pilot project and Goostrey was one of just 6 stations chosen to take part. Craig was congratulated by Lisa Pfannermuller, (head of natural environment at the Rail Safety and Standards Board) and Mark Barker (chair of Cheshire Best Kept Stations).

FoGS were assessed by a professional from Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. He visited Goostrey station in September so he could find out what we had done to improve biodiversity. This was an excellent opportunity to showcase FoGS’ work to increase the variety of habitats, for example by planting an apple tree and by creating bug hotels and boxes for birds & bats. The ecologist also learned how species diversity is mapped and monitored through GIS. Now we’re looking forward to receiving suggestions specific to our location and resources about how to build on what we have already achieved.

You can find out more about FoGS by contacting Craig Sidebotham on 01477 544111 or by looking at our website. And you can meet us at Goostrey station during our action mornings which are usually on the second Sunday of the month. Our volunteers include young people who are part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.