The Friends of Goostrey Station recently heard that their group of volunteers had been shortlisted for two Community Rail Awards ….
Earlier in the year, entries were submitted to a national competition.
Each of these consisted of a 200 word summary, 600 words of detailed explanation and 6 photos.
The full shortlist for each category will be featured in a special edition of Community Rail News and publicised through the press and social media. Winners will be announced during an online event on Wednesday 9th December.
In Category 4, for Most Enhanced Buildings and Surroundings, the FOGS entry concentrated on the successful restoration of the Victorian wooden station building.
This challenge was completed in 2019 but required seven years of patient negotiation, in person and via email.
During that time, FOGS members worked with our local community to improve the area around the station through gardening, artwork and railway memorabilia. They also liaised with various authorities to restore the water supply, to improve safety on the road bridge and to level the car park surface.
The second shortlisting is for Category 12 : It’s Your Station. Entries were placed into one of four groups and FOGS has been put in the Gold Band. The judging covered 3 areas – Gardening Achievement, Community Participation and Environmental Responsibility.
Our submission included descriptions of how recent improvements had made the station more welcoming, informative and biodiverse.
It was good to have photos of cubs helping to construct bug hotels and passenger comments about the art displays by pupils from Goostrey Community Primary School.
For example, ’Well done to all the children for helping to keep our station bright and cheerful’.
MP Fiona Bruce’s statement that FOGS is a ‘model of constructive joint working on the part of local residents of which this community is rightly proud’ was also quoted.
While we wait for the Award Ceremony, work continues to maintain the environment of Goostrey Station and to install a cycle rack, CCTV and toilets.
