Now that the work is drawing to its conclusion it appears that what should be a flagship development falls short in its execution.

Those of your readers who regularly use Tennyson Road will know that the boundary of the Walks is marked by reinforced concrete fencing.

The fencing is broken and missing in places and is generally in a state of disrepair.

As there has been no work on the fence I decided to phone the council to ask what was to be done.

The response I got was "... um... er... well.. when the original plans were drawn up this was not included, so nothing is being done as it wasn't budgeted for.

When the new park manager is appointed he may decided to do something in the future."

As the view of the Walks from Tennyson Road is the best aspect of the park and, considering more than 10,000 vehicles per day use the road (according to a vehicle survey done by the county council approximately ten years ago), one would think that improving this view would have been of prime importance especially if one of the considerations in the redevelopment is to encourage more people to use the Walks.

There are new metal railings all over the Walks (and outside the Walks) in places where they are not really needed.

RAILINGS

This includes the replacing of perfectly serviceable railings that were on the border of the Walks along the St John's Walk.

Why then wasn't replacing the existing concrete fencing with railings part of the plan?

This is not the only example of poor planning on the Walks project.

If you take a stroll up the Broad Walk you will see some very attractive lamp standards that are in keeping with the age of the park.

If you return via St John's Walk you will see modern lamp standards with old-fashioned lamps placed on top.

When I asked the council official about this she said: "... We under-budgeted for lighting and decided to put modern lamp standards in St John's Walk as it's not as old as the Broad Walk."

The Walks redevelopment should have been a prime example of a successful project using public money with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Instead, as a result of poor planning and poor budgetary controls we are left with a park that, due to cost cutting, falls short of the mark of what was originally envisaged.

Scott Chapman, Tennyson Road, Lynn