On behalf of the Friends of the Park, thank you for saying so!
There is a page on our web site about it here but I haven't been able to keep up with our volunteers so it is a bit out of date.
http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/projects/caring-for-park-benches.htmlAll Things Nice have recently given a donation to allow the second bench near the Co-Op steps at the park entrance to be fully refurbished, so it will look the same as the one sponsored by Costa Coffee. It had been refurbed by us once already but we used timber rescued from other benches that have been replaced. It will look much better when it is done with the same new materials as the Costa one and has its new plaque too.
We only have Jim Heald's bench and the three (relatively new) ones at the Boules Court, plus the Ian Rice bench near the canal entrance to do, and then we will have refurbished or replaced every bench in the park (I think it was 33 in all). It will just be a matter of keeping on top of the maintenance then.