A grant from Greater Anglia has provided funds for two planters to be installed at St. Margarets railway station in Hertfordshire.

A grant of £700 from Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Improvement Fund enabled the New River Live Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and the station’s adopters to install the planters.

They are self-watering and will host floral displays and provide a boost to the local wildlife.

Using the grant funds, Katie Goldthorpe, Community Rail Partnership officer for the New River Line, purchased the planters, which were then installed and planted by Robert and Rose Jewitt, station adopters at St. Margarets.

As the plants mature, they will create beautiful flower displays, and their self-watering capability will ensure the plants thrive even during periods without rain.

The Customer and Community Improvement Fund supports initiatives that provide community benefits and enhance rail’s positive role in the area served by Greater Anglia.

Suggestions for grants can be submitted by organisations such as community rail partnerships, station adopters, local authorities or parish councils, community groups, or charities.

As well as providing planters, in 2024, volunteer station adopters throughout the Greater Anglia network added over 1,000 square metres to areas set aside at stations for gardens and wildlife, and cumulatively they now total more than 10,000 square metres.

Greater Anglia is always on the lookout for more local residents to get involved as community volunteers to help improve their local railway stations.

“We were pleased to support this initiative which has facilitated a lovely floral display at St Margarets station thanks to the amazing work of the CRPs and the station adopter volunteers. We are always looking to enhance the role of the railway in support of the communities it serves, and our new Customer and Community Improvement Fund is a way of supporting more locally focused enhancements in line with community needs.”

Scott Dolling, Greater Anglia’s Partnerships Manager