It’s been a busy time at the North Notts and Lincolnshire Community Rail Partnership (NNLCRP), with plenty more planned as we move into spring.
Local updates
NNLCRP are incredibly grateful to their station adopters, who have been working hard on looking after local stations.
In Retford, an area has been designated for a garden, with the area cleared by a team of volunteers on a chilly morning. They will soon be putting out a call for volunteers to help with gardening, so please get in touch via the Friends of Retford Station Facebook page, or email friendsofretfordstation@gmail.com. They are also pleased to announce that mosaics, including one of The Flying Scotsman, will soon be installed at Retford Station. Finally, regular users of the lower-level platforms will notice that additional bins have now been installed along the walkway.
Users of Shireoaks Station will have noticed that the ‘Welcome to Shireoaks’ banners have now been replaced. Thanks to the Friends of Shireoaks Station for organising this. The CRP is also working with Artworks to progress the station mural project, promoting the local area.
World Book Day
NNLCRP officers enjoyed a day travelling around the network to celebrate World Book Day in March. The day began with a visit to Benjamin Adlard School in Gainsborough, to read train themed stories to the early years children. Each child was gifted a copy of the ‘Thomas and Friends: Stay Safe with Thomas’ rail safety story book to keep. The CRP officers then moved to Retford, giving away copies of the book at the station, before finishing with a trip to Worksop to leave some copies in the excellent station café.
Website
The new NNLCRP website is now live and can be accessed via www.nnlcrp.com or www.nnlcrp.org.uk.
Community Rail Accreditation Renewal
Officers and David Harby, CRP Chair, met with representatives from TPE, LNER, EMR and Community Rail Network to review work over the past year, and to renew NNLCRP’s Community Rail Accreditation. Accreditation is formal recognition from the Department for Transport that the CRP operates to a high standard, with objectives and activities supported by the Government. The DfT is the accreditation body for CRPs based in England. The review was broadly positive, with the CRN recommending to the DfT that accreditation should be awarded to the period February 2025. The CRP will update stakeholders with the outcome, pending a decision from the DfT.
Please do keep in touch by emailing contact@nnlcrp.org.uk.