A peaceful setting has been chosen for a Bro Pro UK bench offering support in Skegness.
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00:00A peaceful setting in St Clemmie's Churchyard has been chosen for a new bench in Skegness.
00:08So is that bench comfortable? A little bit wet this morning but yeah it's a good old
00:14bench. Yeah so you're obviously pleased to have it finally in place. Can you tell me
00:21about the bench and why it's here? Yeah so we saw the idea a few years ago on somebody
00:29else's post on Facebook how they were trying different ways to reach out to people. So
00:33we worked with Magnus Furniture to produce these bespoke benches just to give people
00:40another way of reaching out really or having that signposting available for people to be
00:46able to reach out. For example we had one placed on the seafront in Mablethorpe about
00:52a year and a half ago and we've already had people who've reached out to us because they've
00:56seen the bench and they've taken the number from the bench and said that they needed help.
01:00Not everyone uses social media, the posts are becoming less and less so we wanted something
01:05more prominent that was out there in the community that hopefully if somebody was having that
01:09bad day or just needed to talk about it, if they walked past it they might just stop and
01:12think that oh that's different and maybe note the number down and it's worked already. The
01:19locations we have got the benches, people have used the number and have called us. It's
01:24also about sitting and just taking time and maybe even engaging with somebody that might
01:33have the same idea. Yeah absolutely, we use the quote living in the moment quite a lot,
01:41being in the moment and all our benches are in quite prominent places. So for example
01:46the one in Skegness, it's quite a tranquil space here at St Clements. When we came originally
01:52to look at where we could place it we actually saw the footfall in the morning as well. There's
01:58quite a lot of people walking past so hopefully people may just take that moment to sit, to
02:02be still, live in the moment as well as conversing with other people that may be on the same
02:08journey or on the same path as them when they come past. Now you've got the Deputy Mayor
02:16Jimmy Brooks who's come along just to check the bench out and just have a look at the
02:21work you're doing. Are you enjoying your peaceful moment at St Clements? You know what,
02:27it's absolutely fantastic. I haven't seen a bench here and this is absolutely fantastic.
02:30I was just sat here looking out towards all the trees and that is really calming and to
02:34be honest I'd like to thank BroPro UK for putting the bench and obviously if it can
02:39help just one person, it's fantastic. The numbers on the bench, it's absolutely brilliant.
02:46Richard Cunnington, you're one of the volunteers down at St Clements who's helping to keep
02:51the churchyard tidy. What do you think to the bench? I thought it's an ideal location.
02:57Like you say, the location for the bench, it's here, it's tranquil, it gives you the
03:04open space, the quiet, the peaceful and for the residents of Skegnesh, you've got a car
03:11park, you're out of the way, you're not on the main footfall where people will see you
03:15and will buy you if you're doing something like this on the phone to somebody like this.
03:19You might not want everyone seeing what you're doing and hearing what you're doing so it's
03:23got that, it's in the open space but it's actually out of the way as well so it's nice
03:28and it's something we need for people of Skegnesh. My connection as a volunteer for the graveyard,
03:37just down here during the summer and you're just looking and you think this is the right
03:40place. In the town itself I thought it would never be seen by local people because holiday
03:46makers etc would just sit on it because it's a bench and that's all they do, there's a bench,
03:50I want to sit down, they'll sit down. So it would never get used by the locals and here
03:54everyone will know about it, it's local, everyone will find it, it'll be all over Facebook eventually
04:00so no it's great, I really think it's what we need.