There is little point doing up the Conservatory at Corporation Park to watch it deteriorate once again. 

Sometimes I think we don’t deserve some buildings and structures.

Over the past year, the council has been attempting to attract funds to transform Corporation Park.

At the heart of this are plans to renovate the historic glass building which has brought joy to generations of families.

It has been closed to the public for many years and parts of it have collapsed.

When I was growing up we would spend most of our days in the park playing football and the conservatory was something we admired.

Any time some smart Alec decided he was going to damage any part of the park he would get told off by the other lads.

It was an unwritten rule amongst the group. You can use the park and play in the park but don’t damage anything. 

If you were to play football, then don’t ruin the lawn area nor go anywhere near the bowling green. 

That slowly changed and the conservatory, known more commonly as the greenhouse, bore the brunt of vandalism. It was a sad sight to see whenever one would venture back into the park.

You could say the deterioration of the glass building was very much like the decline of society’s attitudes to collective responsibility.

The conservatory at the time was a special place. It went into ruin once people stopped appreciating how unique it was.

You have to take your hat off to those volunteers who have attempted to protect this building and the park itself.

The decay of some public park areas is blamed by local authorities on the lack of funds.

That might well be the case but we do tend to find money for pointless ventures that we later realise don’t work.

We will block off perfectly good high streets then later realise, there was a reason they were ‘busy’ high streets in the first place. 

There really needs to be a change in culture and attitude towards places we use for free.

I do think there is a real attitude of entitlement that continues to pervade within some of us. We want nice public places and parks but do very little to make sure they stay that way.

Then we spend the next 10 years moaning about how rubbish everything is.