A Trip to the DfT and a mosaic at Hadfield!

 On Wednesday 17th July Neil visited the DfT in London for an ACoRP Station Adoption meeting. It was one of the hottest days of the year as he made his way to the venue. Hosted in a cheerful and professional manner by ACoRP's Brian Barnsley and Neil Buxton it was a very interesting seminar with representatives from various lines and stations from around the country. We were able to share what we were most proud of - Neil spoke about the recent 5 station Teddy Bears Picnic event on the Glossop Line as well as discussing shared problems. Three DfT officials joined in the day and it was good to share experiences with them and hear their perspectives on Community Rail in the UK and the huge amount of work being done by volunteers. Neil was particularly impressed with the work going on at Leighton Buzzard, led by Sylvia and at Benthem led by Gerald, on the Leeds to Morecambe line. Mike Franklin, of Network Rail, gave a presentation on Community schemes around the country. Pictures were shown of Glossop station's embankment garden featuring before and after ie current! Mike was generous in his praise of the work being done at Glossop and praised, in particular, the involvement of Pete Gaskell and Russell Pike of Network Rail in getting this scheme off the ground and for continued involvement.
   Last week Neil visited Joy at Friends of Hadfield to discuss work on the storyboard project. Whilst there  he was able to see all the work going on to transform the approach to the station with newplanting schemes. It was also a delight to seethe new art work on the station all done by young children at local schools. The scenes feature areas around Hadfield eg Torside reservoir. They are bright and colourful with a mosaic by Glossop based ceramic artist Adrian Holt. Well worth a look! Joy is to be congratulated for all her hard work in getting this project to fruition!