BENTHAM Station - which was last year was named Lancashire's community station of the year - enjoyed more success at the tenth anniversary National Community Rail Awards, held in Scarborough Spa.

Organised by the Association of Community Rail Partnerships (ACoRP), the event saw more than 350 guests representing friends' groups, community rail partnerships and rail bodies from across England, Scotland and Wales gather together to celebrate the best community rail projects, developed over the past year.

The Friends of Bentham Station (FOBS) and Bloomin’ Bentham were nominated for two awards.

They won first place in the Small Projects (Under £500) Award for their innovative annual planter sponsorship scheme and, following a ballot, Friends chairman Gerald Townson came second in the Essence of Community Rail Photographic Award for his image, The Platform Entertainers, which was taken at the station on Carnival Day.

The planters scheme is administered by the Friends and sponsored by We Are Bentham, with the actual planting being carried out by the hard-working volunteers of Bloomin’ Bentham.

The judges felt that it was "a simple yet innovative, self-financing scheme which has brought together new groups within Bentham. It has created a valuable resource which has enhanced the rail gateway to this small town and enriched the journeys for passengers on the Bentham Line".

Alex Hynes, managing director at Northern Rail, said: “The 18 community groups we work with around our network help shape what Northern means to our customers. Not only are they dedicated to our stations, they are also committed to improving our customers’ experience. Being shortlisted is proof enough, but being placed and winning reaffirms our commitment to the communities we serve.”

And Neil Buxton, general manager of ACoRP, said: “The community rail awards celebrate all that is great in the community rail world and these are the very best projects and volunteer contributions this year as judged by our independent panel of experts. We congratulate all this year’s very worthy winners’’

The Bentham Line links Leeds, Lancaster and Morecambe.