THE Old Railway Line Garden Centre, located in Three Cocks between Brecon and Hay-on-Wye, hosted the annual Garden Centre Association's (GCA) Wales and West regional awards last Tuesday evening.

The family-run, independent garden centre was awarded the top prize of Best Garden Centre in Wales and the West for the fifth consecutive year alongside Best Customer Service and Best Garden Products Retailer.

Garden centre manager, Huw Lewis said, "We are delighted to have been awarded with such a prestigious award for the fifth year in a row. To be able to call ourselves 'the best' in the whole of Wales and the West of England for another 12 months is a great achievement and is a result of the hard work and commitment of our amazing staff. Our mission is to offer the best shopping experience possible to our customers and I think the three awards presented to us by the GCA demonstrate this."

The GCA represents over 200 garden centres nationwide. Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability. The awards are decided by the results of the annual inspections, which take place at all GCA garden centres. Garden centres have no advance warning about when their inspection will take place and they do not have the option to turn away the inspector.

The award-winning, independent, family-run garden centre was established in 1990 by owners, Mark and Christina Cleary. It provides customers with quality plants, gardening products, indoor and outdoor living goods, pet care products, giftware and furniture. The Old Railway Line is also home to a farm shop stocking products from over 60 local and Welsh suppliers and a 150 seater restaurant offering delicious home cooked food.