Good Gym runners and Norwich station garden volunteers come up smelling of roses

Volunteer gardeners at Norwich rail station received a helping hand from a group of runners who helped with digging, before running off into the night.

26 members of the ‘Good Gym’ - a charity which combines running with good deeds in the community - spent over an hour helping Norwich station’s team of garden volunteers to dig up 100 rose plants and bag them up for temporary storage while their bed is improved.

The volunteers, who have ‘adopted’ Norwich rail station and look after its gardens, plan to rid the bed of the perennial weeds that are infesting it before replanting the roses early next year.

Sue Roe, one of the station adopters said, “We are so grateful to the Good Gym members for their help on a dark and rainy evening.

“This is the second time we have worked together and they managed to make short work of a hard task.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the work once everything is replanted. We will be spacing the roses out a bit to create room for other plants amongst them to help increase biodiversity and attract more wildlife.”

Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, who manages the Station Adoption initiative, said, “What an impressive community effort at Norwich station!

“We are very grateful to Sue and her team who are working so hard to transform the station garden.

“I’m sure it will delight passengers next year and also create a great impression on visitors to our fine city who arrive by train.”

Greater Anglia’s Station Adoption initiative sees local people across the network get involved with their local stations to come up with ideas and projects that benefit their communities.