New Memorial Garden begins to take shape in Mansfield town centre

The monument, which has a smooth pebble-like surface, is the focal point of the Memorial Garden, located behind the Old Town Hall, and will also be home to seating areas, trees, plants and terraced grass areas.

Inspirational words have also been engraved around the base including, ‘community’ and ‘kindness’.

The carved hole near the top of the stone has been designed to represent the future or something beyond, referring to the positive changes visitors will soon see in the town centre.

The garden aims to focus on remembrance, gathering, reflection and thought and is due to be fully completed in the new year.

To ensure the garden is used suitably and reduce the risk of any anti-social behaviour, CCTV cameras will also be installed nearby in the new year.

Another pocket park with a slide for youngsters has also been completed on the grassy slope at the rear entrance of the Four Seasons Shopping Centre, near Walkden Street car park.

Elected Mayor Andy Abrahams welcomed the monument's unveiling and completion of the pocket park.

He said: “I am so pleased to see both of these green projects progressing ahead, all for the benefit of our residents and visitors to the town centre.

“Both areas were in need of greening up to help make more locations in the centre attractive to pause or enjoy with the family.

“These projects are an important part of improving the environment in our town centre. I now hope it will encourage people to linger and enjoy spending time in Mansfield, boosting our local economy.”

The memorial garden is part of the Green Recovery programme.

Severn Trent is investing £76m in Mansfield using community integrated sustainable urban drainage to alleviate the risk of flooding during storms, in a trial never seen on this scale in the UK before.

The memorial garden is one of the schemes incorporating sustainable drainage, designed to make communities more resilient against the increasing threat of flooding from climate change, population growth and urban development for years to come.