Sue volunteers at pets corner, walks and cycles in the park - and visits with her younger grandchilren.

They visit all the park - disc-golf, walking, and playing in the trees in the Japanese garden - climbing on the rocks and trees.

Likes the whole park - loves coming in from Cromwell Road and seeing all the trees. The park changes at different times of day and year - very varied. 

Discgolf looks great.

THings that need attention include - maintenance - not as good as it used to be, the paths and edging not well maintained. One of the paths from Cromwell Road cant be used as its too muddy, and it floods and is muddy! 

General maintenance and drainage need attention. 

Hello, Sue. Hi. It's lovely to see you here today. And why have you come to the park today? Um, I've come to do a volunteer session

I do gardening on a Monday afternoon with a small group of other volunteers. And how long have you been volunteering in the park? Um well, I've been volunteer gardening for just a year, but I've been doing all volunteering things since about the year 2000. Yeah

So what sort of thing do you volunteer? Well, at the moment I volunteer doing the Gardening and Pets corner, which I do once a week. I've been doing pets corner for about five years, on and off. Um, And prior to that, um, I've done volunteering with friends of Longford Park when we, uh when we put festivals on the first festival was the year 2000, when we did picnic in the park

And then we had a few. We've had a few festivals since then, which is just an annual festival, but they don't We don't put them on anymore. So what sort of thing did you learn to organise through being a volunteer in the park? Um, well, it was, um I used to take responsibility for the stalls, so, um, it was booking stall holders and caterers

Um, and then on the day, you know, just making sure that they were all right showing them to the places and collecting their collecting money. And, um, that was it. Really? And apart from all your volunteering, you come to the park for other reasons as well

Oh, yeah, I come, I come walking in the park. Um, just have a walk around. Sometimes I come for a cycle around the park because, um, I'm too scared to cycle on the roads

Um, I fetch my grandchildren into the park, got four grandchildren, but it's the tends to be the three younger ones that that are fetching. And, um So which bits of the park do you use with the grandchildren? Um, all of it. Really? We We walk around

Um, we use the both the playgrounds. We sometimes go and use the disc golf. Um, we've played tennis, but not very often

Um And, um, they like to play in the trees, which I don't know what you call the area Japanese. The younger kids love to play in the Japanese garden. They've all liked to do that, Um, when you know, my oldest grandson is 12 now, but when he was younger, he used to like to come and play in the Japanese garden

They like climbing on the rocks and in the in the trees and the bushes. And we go into the wildlife garden. Have you got a favourite area of the park? Um, I don't I don't know if I've got a favourite area, because I like the whole of the park

Really? Um, I I I like I love coming into the park from Cromwell Road and seeing all the trees when you walk in, um, it it is different at different times of the day and different times of the year. But when you walk in and then see the big open space and there's all the trees ahead of you, it looks so nice. And, um, I think it was last week or the week before when the, um the leaves were all change colour, and it looked really, really lovely

Um, so if you come in the morning, sometimes in the autumn mornings, it can look quite mysterious. If it's a bit misty, and then in the afternoon when the sun setting Um, it just looks really, really lovely. Um, but I do like all of the park

Uh, the disc golf looks really nice because, um, the people that planned the disc golf did such a good job of it. There's lots of trees, and you can even if you're not playing disc golf, you can walk around. And it's really nice place to be

Yeah. So is there any problems in the park or any features that you think need attention? Um, well, there's a few things that need attention. Um, over recent years, um, the maintenance hasn't been as good as it used to be

Um, So the paths and the the edging, um, isn't as good as it isn't as well maintained as it was, um, coming in from the Cromwell Road entrance. There's a path to the right. Um, that really can't be used now because it's so muddy

Um, when the path was laid, it wasn't a very good job. It there was. There was no can put in the path

So it always flooded. Um, and now it's just full of mud. And in some areas, you can't distinguish the path from the what was a grass area

And so it really means walking in the road, which isn't very safe because of the cars coming into the park. Um, And, uh, but apart from that, I think it's just general bits of maintenance and paths and edging and drainage That needs attention. Yeah

So you mentioned the problems with the flooding on the path there? Yeah. So that's the drainage problem. Yeah

Yeah. Um, the drains near the Children's playground often flood, um, things like leaves not being swept up. Um, in time Because, um, the path to get quite slippy when the cupboard didn't leave, so it can be a bit dangerous

Yeah. So around by the cafe and, um, around by pets corner. Um, you know what? I we sweep them up sometimes, um, outside, pets, corn, and there's a lady and an elderly lady comes and sweeps them up

Um, but they're left for too long without being cleared away. Yeah. So if there was any funding to improve the park, um, you mentioned the paths and the drainage

Is there anything else that you think needs attention and well, that's Oh, Yeah, I think there's an area called the, um was the hall Gardens and then called the Larry Sullivan Gardens. Often seems quite neglected. Um, and could do with some improvements

Um, so I think that that is an area that could be worked on. Uh, and, um, there has been some mention lately of of the possibility of having a pump track for skates, uh, skateboards and, um, scooters and, um, BMX bikes. Yeah, which I think would be a great idea because, uh, although it's a big park and we've got two playgrounds there, they're more for younger Children

And there's tennis courts. Uh, there's not really anything. And we've got obviously got the the disc golf, Uh, which any age group can use and is a great is a great addition to the park

But I think a pump track would be great for the, um, old kids. I have a 12 year old grandson who would love it to have a have that there because he has to go to other parks, Um, with his skateboard. Um, because there's nothing in this park for him

Nowhere for him to use his skateboard. Um oh, is there anything else you'd like to add? Um, no, I don't think so. I just really that it's such a lovely park

And I feel really, really lucky to to have this park, um, so close to my house. Um, and there's there's obviously the, um it's not part of the park, but it's at the edge of the park. We've got the, um uh, that No, the, um, sports the athletic stadium

Um, and it's just so good. Really. Um, that we've got that so close

I always think of it as part of the park, although it isn't really, um, and it's great to see all the runners like we have the, um the running on Saturday mornings, we have the, um the the the park run. Uh, and it's a lovely thing to see. Um, and the park is so well used now, um, we have the young moms doing the boogie run, and the cafe was a was a great addition to the park

It's brought more people in. Um, so it's lovely. Um, and I feel very, very lucky that we've got it

Oh, thank you, sir. That's lovely. See if we can do this and how we are losing so

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