18 months ago, when we first took an interest in the flat in Shrewsbury that would eventually become our home, the view from the lounge windows was the remains of a grim 1960s shopping centre that was scheduled for demolition. We knew that the town council had a plan to build a park in its place, but with funding being scarce we didn’t have much confidence that this would actually happen. In the end we decided that we liked the flat so much that it was worth a gamble. Thankfully, soon after we signed on the dotted line it gradually became clear that we would indeed be getting a park. At lunchtime today the dignitaries from the town council arrived for the opening.

There were lots of reporters, the story even featured on the BBC. You can see our flats overlooking the park on the left in the photograph below.

After the fuss had all died down we walked across the road to take a look. Val got some photos.

It all looks very nice, with rocks for the kids to climb on and ‘bug hotels’ to encourage pollinators. There’s still work to do – apparently the council has 6000 plants waiting to be planted. It looks like our gamble has paid off.