A COMMUNITY project saw a local scout group and employees from Rolls Royce team up this week to brighten up Bere Alston Railway Station.
On Tuesday (August 15) Bere Alston scouts were assisted by around 20 employees from Rolls Royce who provided the manpower to construct planters at the village’s station for the children to plant flowers in.
The initiative was organised by Abbie Decarteret, Rolls Royce employee and district explorer scout leader for West Devon who saw the opportunity as a great way for Rolls Royce to give back to the community and help a local project.
Abbie said: ‘Rolls Royce has got a LiveWell scheme and as part of that they’ve encouraged us to engage in community projects.
‘I reached out to all the scout groups in West Devon asking if anyone had a project that they needed manpower/help with and Charlotte Hammond (group scout leader for Bere Alston scouts) shouted out straight away.’
Charlotte said: ‘About three years ago Bere Alston joined Britain in Bloom and they wanted the disused platform to have planters with flowers because when people are sat at the station it’s nice to see it.
‘The scouts were asked to do the planters and now its turned into an annual thing and we have adopted the platform.’
Rebecca Catterall, development officer for the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, involved with the project added: ‘It’s the only scout group in the country which has adopted a station so it’s quite unique for the country.’
Charlotte continued, ‘Every year we come down to do the planters and we rebuild them with pallets, but over the last few years they’ve fallen apart. I thought it would be nice to rebuild them out of railway sleepers.’
Charlotte was sent 36 railway sleepers which were kindly donated by Network Rail but explained that when the sleepers arrived the job seemed like an impossible task for the scouts to undertake alone. Charlotte continued that when Abi reached out it was the perfect timing and she jumped at the chance for some assistance, describing it as ‘fate’.
A handful of scouts aged 10-14 years olds spent the day planting at Bere Alston railway station once the heavy lifting and shifting had been done by the Rolls Royce employees who had ventured from Devonport Dockyard, with some added sunshine being a bonus.
The team replanted the plants that had been installed as part of Britain in Bloom. The day went well and the group got all six planters built and everyone enjoyed themselves.
The scouts helped out with shovelling ground, pushing wheelbarrows, planting plants, watering and sweeping up afterwards, and Charlotte explained that the scouts will return in the autumn to plant new heritage bulbs.