It's a bit worrying to think that Belle Vue Park, where hundreds of children of all ages, and adults, go to play, run about, let off steam, sit and read, fall in love, have a packed lunch, etc, could soon accommodate a health centre car park.

Not to mention the future of the building and its occupants.
The trouble is, we probably won't know how much development will go on there until after the principal of swapping has been established.

IT'S not that long ago that People's Park in Sudbury was not "just somewhere for people to walk the dogs". It was a sports ground with pitches.
The Free Press Thunderbirds football team – don't laugh – played a match or two there, when I was a child reporter in the 1970s.
(Our goalkeeper was a photographer called Nick Burch, who came to us via glamorous Agence France Presse. He actually played in goal with a Gauloise dangling from his lips, which I thought was dead cool at the time).

The point being, the park should not have any more houses built on it. It's a park. It was only sold to the health authority in the first place because it was a health authority, and it needed somewhere to build Sudbury's much-needed new hospital.

And if people say: "Well you don't see children playing there now", it's probably because there's a whacking great wire fence round what's left, and the grass is chest high.

WE used to play up at school, given half a chance. Maybe you did, too. I'm just glad I was born way before there was the technology for some of my more stupid moments to have ended up on YouTube.

HERE'S a household tip I discovered at the weekend that I think you may find useful. When turning the mattress, do not attempt to leave it propped up on its side while you run round to the other side of the bed. It doesn't work. It tends to topple over and snap the wall lights off.