Friends of Montgomery Play Park announced that Earth Wrights were selected as the company to develop the play park project for the town last month.

Since then the group have been working closely with them to get plans ready to share with a wider community.

The design of the park and the amount of space available in the new location, next to the football ground on the recreation field, will lend itself to a development which could be completed in a staged process depending on the level of funding achieved.

Therefore, during April the Friends are inviting local involvement to help evaluate the proposal and prioritise aspects of the scheme that are deemed to be of most value and best serve the community.

All the plans and background information can be found at the Friends new online page http://play.montgomery.cloud including a fantastic fly through video and an evaluation survey which will close midnight April 25.

Physical plans and copies of the survey will be up at the Town Hall and at the Institute for those who don’t have access to the internet.

The Friends are working with Montgomery Church in Wales Primary School to gain the opinion and feedback from pupils.

As potential direct users of the park, their considerations will be key to the final design.

Earth Wrights will be available for an online public discussion on Wednesday, April 21 (4-5pm) where members of the team will be on hand to answer questions.

If you would like to get in touch directly with the Friends you can email playpark@montgomery.cloud or send a message via Facebook @montgomeryplaypark

History booklet

Local historian, John Davies, has produced an interesting booklet which outlines the history of the Vale of Montgomery from the end of the last Ice Age to the Black Death (1349).

The booklet is based on some dozen articles published in history journals by the author over the past 15 years, and it is aimed at the general reader who may be interested in the distant past of our area.

John said, “The present landscape, settlement pattern, and distinctive Anglo-Welsh nature of the vale is in no small part a result of the activities of our forebears in this distant past.”

The booklet is currently available from Bunners at a cost of £5. John has donated some money from sales to the Civic Society, which runs the local Old Bell Museum.

Polling station

Montgomery Library, at The Institute in Arthur Street, is traditionally used as the polling station but the room normally used is too small given the need to maintain social distancing.

Lesley Williams, library co-ordinator, has been working with Powys County Council to ensure people clan cast their vote safely on May 6th.

Lesley said: “We will be using this main library room, so that a one-way system can be employed and social distancing applied.

“Whilst libraries are now permitted to open, we have chosen to leave ours closed until after the election. This way, the room can be cleaned and prepared and kept as virus-free as possible ready for voting, and then ready for the readers when we re-open.”

The library, which is staffed by volunteers, will re-open at a date to be announced, following the election.