Part 2
A rather over-jubilant Ian celebrates as the new seat welcomes its first parishioners, Diego the Caverpoo and Linda Stevens of Sileby.
Where have all the benches gone?…..
Part 2
You may recall in the last Soar Valley Life magazine, the mysterious saga I put forward about the lost seats in Sileby Park.
Well, Read on!
Hardly had the ink dried on the last copy out of the press when I was collared good and proper in my local by our long-time servant of this parish Alan Higgs, a Parish Councillor and the man we all rely on to keep our park, and open spaces in excellent order.
At our close encounter in the pub I asked Alan to put in writing the gist of his comments so that I could put the record straight. Here is his reply:
“Hi Steve. It was nice to chat with you last week in the Horse and Trumpet, (and the Horse and Trumpet is a nice place to chat!) Your article about the disappearance of the park seats was very timely, if a little factually incorrect. The seats were not removed to stop people smoking dope (which infers that they were removed by the Parish Council) but they were vandalised and rendered unsafe by certain members of our community. I could expand on that but might find myself in trouble for political incorrectness.
I do admit that it has taken a while to replace them but as you may know the park is undergoing a massive re-investment programme paid for by the developers who have built houses here, and a grant from the UK shared prosperity fund. It all amounts up to about £1 Million.
Into that plan falls new seating and rubbish bins which, if included in our main contract, won’t be installed until around Christmas.
So, we at the Council have taken the decision to install some of the seats and bins now.
In fact, the day before we spoke in the pub (26th July) the concrete base for two of the seats had been laid near to the Pavilion, we need to allow time for the concrete to cure so, fingers crossed, the seats are due to be installed on the 9th August with others appearing shortly afterwards.
If Sileby residents would like to be informed about progress with the park, all the latest news can be found on the Sileby Parish Council website under the heading Project Park!
Kinds regards
Alan Higgs
….. and on a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon in early August, Sileby once more has seats in the park for one and all to rest and refresh, in sunshine or in shadow, to watch the flowers grow and the leaves fall.
Steve
Ian Turlington left, Alan Higgs right checking all is well
Ian Turlington drills the holes whilst Alan Higgs sweeps up.
