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Report transcript in: Val talks about bringing her grandchildren to the park and how great the play areas are
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Val talks about bringing her grandchildren to the park and how great the play areas are
Please Report the Errrors?
uh, hello.
Uh, thanks for coming today to the Lady Bowlers. Um
and, um,
it's good of you to take part. And I just wanted to ask, um,
how long you've been coming to Longford Park.
I started coming to Longford Park
about eight years ago.
Um, because my daughter and her
husband have two sons who live
nearby,
and from from them being born,
I would come over here every every other Friday to look after them
while Mom and Dad were at work.
And because we were close by coming to the playground,
the Children's play area at the park was absolutely ideal.
So I've spent hours and hours putting on the swings,
um, put put, pushing them around on the roundabout,
listening to the musical tunes and, um,
helping them climb up the climbing frame and
which all of which they thoroughly enjoyed.
It was
it was a good play area,
and now the Children are 12 and nine.
They've progressed to the big boys
area with the zip wire and the big clothing
mounted.
Um,
I think they've done some improvements to the the young Children's play area,
and I think that's pretty good.
If it's well fenced in and safe.
But perhaps some attention could be made to the
bigger boys play area.
Um,
it gets very, very muddy when it's wet,
and there is a very big variety of, um,
activities for them to do so that that could be an
So I I've come been coming all those years up and down.
And then last December I actually moved here into a flat
opposite, um, Longford Park, um, to be near my daughter and the family.
Um, and I've used the park a lot.
Uh, I I've used it to get out in the fresh air. I've used it for walks and
enjoying being outside.
I think it's a really, really nice park
because you've got such a good mixture.
You've got some big open spaces for for games and football.
And it's lovely in some of those big open places
to see families sitting around having picnics and playing games.
And
that's really, really nice.
It's lovely to be around such big trees and that nice mixture of trees.
Uh, there are some flower beds which are very, very pretty,
but I don't think there are enough.
Um, like I've heard other people say it would be nice to have
I. I I'm not a massive fan of Rose Gardens,
but, um,
to have some colour,
some rests of some of the rose gardens and
some colour in those beds would be really nice.
Um, I like having the cafe.
Um, it just it just a nice food.
Um, it's useful to have the toilets there,
but obviously they're only open when the cafes open,
which is perhaps not such a good thing.
Um, I can't think of anything else at the moment.
Yeah. So, um
oh, and I joined the bowling.
I've joined the bowling club this this march
one or two people live in the flats where I live have been
members here for a long time and encouraged me to come and join.
So it's lovely to to play a game which I find interesting and challenging,
And also to meet a really welcoming, lovely group of people and make make friends,
which has been excellent.
Have you joined any other clubs in the park?
Yeah.
Um,
no. I mean, I
I
take the I take the Children.
I take the Children to scouts and beavers because
that that's not for me to join.
Um,
I mean, would you would you trust the the community choir?
Um, where we meet at the at the, um,
first
hall
and again, thinking of what you were saying earlier,
the last last week, when we went, we noticed that some of the really really,
really bad holes in the road have been patched.
So perhaps if they patched some of the holes
near the beacon centre, Um,
perhaps they could do the holes elsewhere.
Yes. Yeah.
So, um,
so you you you use the community centre end as well.
So so you use quite a lot of the part, Really? Don't you
know,
coming in at different entrances. So, um,
I would just wondered if you got a favourite part of the park that that you like,
you know, or any particular activity that you do within the park.
That, you'd say is your the park.
The area of the park I like is is the variety of places where you can walk.
I do like to walk up the main footpath.
Um, that leads, um, from edge lane up to the
cafe and the little pets corner, because the trees walking that avenue of trees
at different times of the year is is is lovely.
Um,
and I I live My flat is opposite the park.
So in the spring, I get a wonderful display of
DA of the daffodils, so that's really
that's really nice,
um,
walking around, I enjoy walking around.
I enjoy walking around in all the different places.
Um, the one thing I would say was that they do need to
check on the drainage because there are times
particularly near the bowling green,
where they have are absolutely flooded,
and there's no chance of walking around them at all.
Yeah. So if there was money available, you think drainage would be?
I think
so,
yes.
And
was it it sort of, um January February time This year. The rain was
was so bad, so heavy
in
parts of the park just outside the bowling green, it was up to people's knees.
It was really it was very, very, very deep.
And, um so you you walk off that main path and is it quite a decent path there?
When it's not flooded, you're quite happy with the main path doesn't get flooded.
The main, the main drag I call it.
It's covered in leaves at the moment, which could be a bit slippy. But there
you take your chances, do it,
but
yeah,
and it's It's quite interesting watching the squirrels,
a
mixture of birds.
So it's Yes,
yes, there's a lot of variety to see
when you
walk
down.
Yes, I do. Because I wouldn't walk on my own at night.
No,
no,
not at
all.
But during the day time, absolutely. Walk a lot on my own.
And when you came to live here, was that draw in the lockdown?
Yes. And
do you feel that you use the power more because of the covid
crisis? Did it have any impact on how frequently
you use the power?
I think it probably did. Yes, because, um,
when you live on your own, it's important to get out.
Um, and And now that I've been here a while and lockdown is is is eased,
I've got more things I can go to.
So I I don't
don't need to get out.
And just to just to get out and walk. So what?
During the lockdown period, how often we coming into the park?
Oh, four or five times a week,
but sometimes I wouldn't come into this park. Sometimes I would go on to turn moss
and go for a walk around, turn moss along the lanes there. So I did vary it a bit.
But I do prefer the park because there is more variety,
more to see. And it's nice to have a coffee.
Oh, yeah.
Um Oh, thank you for telling me your thought. Anyway,
it's
good to
know. Is there anything else that you want to?
I can't. I can't think of anything
else, so
you
just
turn it off.
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