It's been two years since the Friends Group first offered to venture outside of the park and refurbish the benches on Market Street, Derby Way and other areas of the Town Centre. With the main obstacles of power-tools and risk assessment training finally overcome, we are now at last in a position to be able to do this work whilst covered by the council's insurance.
Trial bench completed
After a prolonged campaign, lobbying the council to help us get into this position, we're delighted to have completed our first trial bench at long last on Sunday 23 August. This is the one on Market Street, near to the NatWest Bank, and we hope that people who see it will agree that it's a huge improvement. You can see the transformation in the photos below:
Why do a trial bench?
The objective of doing a trial bench was to show people what we could do and also to learn for ourselves how easy or difficult the task would be. We learned a great deal while doing this first bench and would now like to tackle the remainder with our trained volunteers, however, there is now the issue of funding to tackle. We don't feel that funds raised for the park should be used to refurbish all of the town centre benches.
Funding needed to tackle the rest of the benches
So we now need to find some funds to allow us to get stuck into the remaining benches. We need to cover the cost of sanding materials, paint, brushes, preservative, fuel (for our generator), replacement tools and maintenance costs for the next couple of years (we will need to treat them at least once a year to keep them looking their best).
We are hoping that local shops and businesses will be prepared to sponsor the refurbishment of a bench near to their premises. We are proposing that a donation of £100 will cover the refurbishment of one bench plus ongoing maintenance for two years. We can also offer an option where the sponsor can pay to have a plaque fitted to the bench they have sponsored. This will increase the cost to £160 to include the provision of a plaque saying "Sponsored by Your Business, refurbished by Friends of Memorial Park", just like the one below, which can be seen on one of the refurbished benches near to the park entrance:
Any surplus funds left over will be used by the Friends for improvements to Marple Memorial Park.
Get in touch if you want to help us smarten up Marple Town Centre!
If your local business would like to sponsor the refurbishment of a Town Centre Bench outside your premises, please get in touch with Mark Whittaker or Patrick O'Herlihy of Friends of the Park.