Volunteers working to keep a town railway station in top condition have been rewarded for their efforts.

Friends of Chirk Station were shortlisted in the Wales’ Best Unstaffed Station category of the annual Keep Wales Tidy awards and triumphed for the second year in a row.

Their victory was announced at an awards ceremony in Cardiff Bay on Monday and town councillor Eleanor Burnham accepted the award on their behalf.

The nomination came after the group had urged the public to vote for them last month.

FOCS has worked extremely hard over the past 13 years of the station’s adoption and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, say the group.

Having recently achieved their fifth ‘Outstanding’ in the RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ awards, the group was delighted to see off the category competition from Caersws and Borth stations to be crowned the winner.

FOCS spokesman, Christine Ashford, said: “We won it last year and we have brought it back home to Chirk again.

”Unfortunately no-one from the group could attend but former AM Eleanor Burnham, who is on the town council, has always supported our work and so we asked her to go on our behalf.

”It is a real achievement – everyone works very hard and this is very much a recognition of the efforts of all the volunteers,

”It is not just about keeping stations tidy anymore, it is about us picking up all the jobs national and local governments can’t do.”

For more than 25 years the Keep Wales Tidy Awards has celebrated inspirational stories from people of all ages who have worked tirelessly to improve their local environment.

During this time, Keep Wales Tidy has recognised all sorts of projects that have helped reduce litter, protect wildlife and created links in communities.

The award ceremony was hosted by S4C presenter Sian Thomas and former Welsh rugby union player Tom Shanklin and sponsored by Viridor.