SAINSBURY’S staff in Oswestry have finished 10 weeks of voluntary work at a community project to mark a milestone anniversary for the store.

The British supermarket is celebrating 150 years since it was established by paying members of staff to help with projects local to each of its stores.

Staff from the Oswestry store, based in Black Gate Street, have used their allocated hours to work alongside staff at the Cambrian Railway to restore and revitalise parts of the tracks exiting the station yard.

The work is being done ahead of a project by the Cambrian Railway to have a train running between the station and Stonehouse Brewery.

Tammy Williams, PR and charity ambassador at Sainsbury’s Oswestry, said the staff enjoyed working on a project which had such a variety of tasks involved.

She said: “We considered a number of places, but we really wanted to find somewhere that had enough work for us to use up all of our allocated hours by doing.

“We contacted Dave Roll at the Cambrian earlier in the year, and it went from there.

“We really liked the fact that the project is very local to the store and it is helping them to achieve their goal of having a train run between the station and Stonehouse Brewery.”

Tammy said one of the reasons they wished to help the railway with its project, is because of the community work it has done in the past.

“The railway does a lot for the community, especially for younger children during the school holidays,” she added.

“We thought it would be nice for us to help them with another great idea they have.

“We’ve completed 10 weeks of the work, doing everything from painting, litter picking, cleaning and tidying the platform.

“We cleaned the museum and the old signal box.

“We’ve really enjoyed taking part and it has been rewarding to be able to see the difference we have made.”

Dave, assistant general manager of the Cambrian Railway, was pleased to have the volunteers helping them with the work on the tracks.

“It’s part of the store’s community engagement work for their 150th anniversary,” he said.

“As part of that, they have sent us some volunteers for work on Wednesdays to help us tidy up the tracks.

“They’ve helped in getting the tracks clear and removing some of the trees hanging over the tracks which could damage the paint on the carriages which will hopefully pass through when they’re fully restored and ready.

“They have also been doing some planting up at the station and painting benches which has been a big help.”