Burton's "grotty" rail station is to be adopted and cleared up by concerned members of the town's Rotary Club after they were left shocked by the state of the venue.

Their plan to roll up their sleeves and spruce up the run-down station in Borough Road has even been given the blessing of East Midlands Trains, which runs the venue. The club, made up of business people from the town, decided to act because members were left shocked by the poor state of the station.

The TLC idea to transform the "grotty" station was the brainchild of Rotarian William Saunders who had been comparing it to the picturesque station just down the road in Willington, which has recently been taken over by the village's Women’s Institute.

Now Burton Rotary Club is in talks with people, including Burton MP Andrew Griffiths and East Midlands Trains to "adopt" the station, stage the clean-up and maintain the upkeep of the venue, which many have dubbed an eyesore.

They have criticised the station because its has nowhere for passengers to sit or get a drink and generally looks very unappealing.

Mr Saunders, said: "I was standing at Willington station during the summer holidays with my grandson, because like me he is train mad, and I was thinking about the state Burton station was in and the amount of times I have been and it has looked a right mess.

"Since Willington WI adopted their station and put in some nice flowers and pictures and given it a good spruce up, it looks really nice. I went back to the Rotary club taking the idea with me to do something similar with Burton’s station."

In the past three months Mr Saunders has spoken with Tory MP Andrew Griffiths and East Midlands Trains about an adoption scheme, saying they had "expressed interest" in the move.

He said: "One of the members of the Rotary is a retired architect and he has drawn up suggestions and plans so all we have to do is think about how we will achieve the plans and pay for the work, if East Midlands Trains like them.

Politicians from Burton and Staffordshire visited the Department for Transport to call for improvements to the town's station

"It will be done with sympathy to the surrounding wildlife and nature but we have lots of nice ideas about water features and how we can inject some colour into the site.

"I particularly want to tackle the areas that are overgrown. If you are a businessman coming into the town for the first time what you see will influence your first impression of the town and it is not exactly a pretty sight.

"I also think it would be a good community project to not only put things right at the station, but also raise the profile of the Rotary and its want to help the community."

Mr Saunders plans for what he calls the "Burton station renaissance" come just months after Rail minister Paul Maynard branded Burton's railway station as 'hideous' during a meeting with politicians from the town.

Mr Maynard shone the spotlight on the state of Burton's station in November last year and his comments sparked demands to improve the facilities.

The Borough Road station has come under fire over the years, for reasons including having no area to sit and have a drink and for the general poor appearance of the station.

Mr Saunders said: "At the moment the station is not very inviting and an awful lot of people now commute from Burton and it is also very central for cities so lets make it attractive. It definitely needs to be maintained because at the moment it is quite grotty.

"At this stage we are just waiting to organise another meeting with East Midlands Trains to present them with the plans. If all goes well we will talk about adopting it and maintaining it with the hope of getting others involved so people in the community can really take pride in their station, we would love to see people sponsor it too."

A spokesman for East Midlands Trains, said: "Our team of station adopters play a very valuable role in helping our stations become an even greater part of the communities they serve.

"We know that Burton station needs improvement and we are talking to Network Rail and local authorities about that, however in the meantime, it is great to be speaking to Burton Rotary Club about the station adoption scheme at Burton station and to hear their thoughts about how we can work together to improve the station."