IT’S been a long time coming – but four years and four months since the first piece of turf was cut on Hermitage Park’s £3.7 million regeneration, the new-look green space finally hosted its first public event last Sunday.

An ‘azalea festival’ organised by the Friends of Hermitage Park, the charity which has been working with park owners Argyll and Bute Council on the regeneration scheme, attracted plenty of keen Helensburgh gardeners eager to snap up a plant or two from Argyll firm M&M Nursery and their team of Michelle and Sandy Leiper and Laura Thomson – and from the Friends themselves, who also had a delicious range of jams, jellies, mustards and chutneys for sale.

Fiona Baker, the chair of the Friends, said: “Unfortunately the park’s azaleas have not yet come into full bloom as it has been, and is, so cold.

“Hopefully people will come back to see them in a week or two when the sun comes out again.

“We had a very successful day and are grateful to everyone who came along to support the event.

“The Friends raised a fantastic sum of £858 from our plant and jam sales, which is a huge boost, especially after not being able to do any fund-raising for a year.

“Any grants we have been lucky enough to get are for specific things, and all charities need some unrestricted funds, so we will be using the money raised for various things – a bit to the CCTV fund and a bit to the graffiti project, which are both progressing well, a bit to the publication of the War Memorial book to be launched in November on Armistice Day to supplement the Lottery Fund grant, and a bit towards buying compost to support the park and children planting seeds.”

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