West Lancs celebrates winning 10K on the lottery

The West Lancashire Light Railway has been awarded £10,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to pay for a programme of improvements at the 2ft gauge line’s headquarters in Hesketh Bank.

The improvement project will focus on two main areas, infrastructure upgrades and staff training.

The line will be made more accessible to visitors and staff with disabilities, by providing an access ramp for the WLLR’s new wheelchair-friendly railway carriage, new gardening tools for use by specialneeds volunteers, and a site accessibility survey by a disabled persons’ advocate.

The line’s work with local schools will be aided by information packs for teachers and pupils, new storyboard interpretation panels and improved welcome signage.

“As part of our Restart Programme post-Covid, we need to provide additional training for our volunteers,” a WLLR spokesman said. “The grant will provide for competency and asset management training, food hygiene courses and digital membership records training”.

The line’s wi-fi coverage will also be extended and improved, which will allow live streaming to the website, while the grant will also contribute towards professional help for revision of the WLLR business plan.

Commenting on the lottery award, WLLR chairman Michael Spall said that the line was looking forward to welcoming visitors of all ages and abilities to its improved facilities.

“After a long enforced lay-off, the grant has come at a very opportune time to help us once more share our love of heritage steam with the public,” he added.

Earlier this year the WLLR received £18,900 from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund which funded work to ensure it could reopen for the 2021 season on 23rd May.