Kidderminster Station Adoption - Wyre Forest and District

Status:	Active, open to new members
Leader:	Susan Langley
Leader:	Tony Haylock
Group email:	Kidderminster Station Adoption group

The vision in late 2021 when Wyre Forest u3a adopted Kidderminster West Midlands train station was with a view to making it more visually interesting and a pleasure to visit when passing through.

The ideas were to:

*Make this newly refurbished station more relevant to the locality.

*Where possible, to invite and encourage local people, organisations and businesses to work together to improve the look of the station.

*Develop stunning arts projects to convey local history.

*Highlight what the surrounding area has to offer its visitors.

*Tend to the already landscaped parts of the station to make it look ‘cared for’.

*Install new flower and shrub planters in the surrounding area and on the platforms to add colour.

Our Vision

We envisaged that this adoption could have a big impact within our community as well as promoting the existence of the u3a movement.

The initial vision for the station was wide and long term. We knew that some projects could be completed quite quickly whereas others would take a little longer due to the processes we needed to go through with West Midlands Trains (who lease the station) and Network Rail who own the station properties.

There is already a core of volunteers who want to make a difference at the station. However, we welcome more members who feel they would like to contribute to this project. The main volunteer core we need to increase is the gardening projects. “Many hands make light work” and the more we have the easier it will be to maintain the ongoing work.

Please also see the Worcester Community Rail Partnership website at this link - WCRP

Please do not miss this short film of the progress made to date.

Here is a summary of the Projects in place (Click on the project display sheet) : -