1As chair of the town council subcommittee on park facilities,
2I'd like to bring you up to date on some of the changes that have been made recently to the Croft Valley Park.
3So if you could just take a look at the map I handed out,
4let's begin with a general overview.
5So the basic arrangement of the park hasn't changed -
6it still has two gates, north and south, and a lake in the middle.
7The café continues to serve an assortment of drinks and snacks
8and is still in the same place,
9looking out over the lake and next to the old museum.
10We're hoping to change the location of the toilets,
11and bring them nearer to the centre of the park
12as they're a bit out of the way at present, near the adventure playground, in the corner of your map.
13The formal gardens have been replanted and should be at their best in a month or two.
14They used to be behind the old museum,
15but we've now used the space near the south gate -
16between the park boundary and the path that goes past the lake towards the old museum.
17We have a new outdoor gym for adults and children,
18which is already proving very popular.
19It's by the glass houses, just to the right of the path from the south gate.
20You have to look for it as it's a bit hidden in the trees.
21One very successful introduction has been our skateboard ramp.
22It's in constant use during the evenings and holidays.
23It's near the old museum,
24at the end of a little path that leads off from the main path between the lake and the museum.
25We've also introduced a new area for wild flowers, to attract bees and butterflies.
26It's on a bend in the path that goes round the east side of the lake,
27just south of the adventure playground.
28Now let me tell you a bit more about some of the changes to Croft Valley Park.
29One of our most exciting developments has been the adventure playground.
30We were aware that we had nowhere for children to let off steam,
31and decided to use our available funds
32to set up a completely new facility in a large space to the north of the park.
33It's open year-round, though it closes early in the winter months,
34and entrance is completely free.
35Children can choose whatever activities they want to do, irrespective of their age,
36but we do ask adults not to leave them on their own there.
37There are plenty of seats where parents can relax and keep an eye on their children at the same time.
38Lastly, the glass houses.
39A huge amount of work has been done on them
40to repair the damage following the disastrous fire that recently destroyed their western side.
41Over £80,000 was spent on replacing the glass walls and the metal supports,
42as well as the plants that had been destroyed,
43although unfortunately the collection of tropical palm trees has proved too expensive to replace up to now.
44At present the glass houses are open from 10 am to 3 pm Mondays to Thursdays,
45and it's hoped to extend this to the weekend soon.
46We're grateful to all those who helped us by contributing their time and money to this achievement.