John’s garden gang wins praise

Monday 15th September 2008, 6:59PM BST.

John Payne with good citizens Rachel Kennedy, left, and Alexandra Adkin A group of students from Wem have been praised by police after they helped an elderly man transform his overgrown garden.

John Payne, 78, became unable to look after his prize-winning vegetable garden after his wife, Elsie, died 18 months ago and his own health took a turn for the worse.

Alexandra Adkin, Joshua Philpott, Ogannaike Babasola and Ben Cornish, all sixth-form geography students at the Thomas Adams School, stepped in to return the garden to its former glory.

The group have been presented with Good Citizen certificates by Inspector Sarah Wagstaff, the head of north Shropshire’s police.

Ruth Payne, Mr Payne’s daughter, said the garden was her father’s “pride and joy” before he became ill.

She added: “The pupils have done a tremendous job and we can’t praise them highly enough.”

Certificates have also been presented to Rachel Kennedy, Harriet Ikin, Sam Gainsborough, Ben Cornish, Abigail Alcock, Andrew Evans and Andrew Price for their involvement in a partnership project with a school in Kenya.

View more: North Shropshire news.