Heart warming! That’s what today was. I ‘opened’ a park bench. This bench is dedicated to the memory of Paul Eddington (of the Good Life, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister). He used to live in Park Avenue North, in my constituency, and the Warner Estates Residents Association (WERA) – mainly in the form of Joyce Rosser – organised the fund-raising for the bench. Moreover, the bench is on Priory Road by Priory Common – and Priory Common itself came about because WERA turned this little strip of land into something. Named it and claimed it. Cleared it of litter and weeds and a sign is being made with its name on to be put up soon.

Anyway – back to the bench. It is a splendid bench with a lovely plaque dedicated to Paul Eddington. Patricia, and two of their sons – Toby and Hugo – came back for the ‘opening’ of the bench. A really amazing crowd of local residents turned out to celebrate and what was so lovely (and heart warming!) was that the warm affectionate smile that comes to everyone who thinks about Paul as Yes Minister etc exactly summed up the warmth of the community action. A truly lovely event.

(You can even watch a very brief movie clip of the opening – as the wrong button was pushed on my camera by mistake!).