Parkour group plans memorial bench
LERWICK Community Council has shown its support for plans for a bench to be installed in the town in memory of a Shetland man who died in an accident in Italy last year.
Local parkour group Northern Focus is keen to replace an old wooden bench at Heddle’s Park with a new one in honour of Ray Connor, who was involved with the organisation.
Twenty three year old Ray, from the south mainland, passed away following an accident in Imperia in August.
He was in the Italian city while he worked on the yacht Hampshire 2, which is owned by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Northern Focus Parkour has written to Shetland Islands Council and Lerwick Community Council about its wish to install the bench in an area of town which is popular with parkour enthusiasts.
Parkour involves travelling along a route, attempting to navigate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only your body.
Northern Focus Parkour’s Brendan Anderson wrote: “We feel this would be a fitting tribute for friends and family of Ray to come and remember him for what he loved to do.
“We called the area ‘Mushy Park’ due to the unique mushroom shaped concrete structures and is one of our groups favourite spots for training and sharing memories together.
“Ray was a very well liked and respected individual in Shetland who helped the group coach around Shetland and even in Orkney at Kirkwall Grammar School with hundreds of students being taught by him.”
He added that “Northern Focus Parkour will supply the bench in its entirety as we have the funds available to use”.
Anderson said the existing benches at Heddle’s Park, which is near Mounthooly Place, have been in “serious disrepair for many years”.
The letter was noted at a meeting of Lerwick Community Council on Monday, with no objections raised.
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