Good morning. It's newsletter number 99 – quite fitting that our 100th on Friday will be announcing the winner of our £1,000 voucher giveaway to celebrate our 10th birthday. If you haven't already entered you can do so here.Today, we're sharing this Letter to Editor sent to us by Carol Lindsay, from Lurgan. If you want to share your thoughts/opinion please send them to info@armaghi.com or simply reply to this email. Well, I'm sitting here beside the Craigavon Lakes reflecting on my memories of growing up in Brownlow. We arrived in 1970 and from the age of 11 I watched it being built up and knocked down and rebuilt. When the original leisure centre opened there was a display of photographs showing what the New City could look like.Today, I see that aspiration turn to reality in the photographs I have taken (below). I have watched the people of Craigavon struggle and fight to survive in the New City with poor mental health, high crime and domestic violence rates. But they held on and they survived. During these difficult years the saving grace was 'The Lakes' – a place to go when hearts were heavy and sadly some ended their life there, including a friend of mine whose car rolled into the water and she drowned. So, ABC Council open your minds and your hearts; this is not just a piece of land to be sold to SRC. This is a sacred space to many, myself included. I remember cycling across the red tiles at the bottom of the lakes before it was filled with water. I also remember the great joy it brought to the people who had endured the barren landscape that was Craigavon. My bottom line is SRC, you do not belong in this park, it belongs to the hearts and souls of everyone who ever lived here and walked its pathways. To work with a council that, in my opinion, has never cared about Craigavon – to bully your way into this so much-needed park against the wishes of the people is, in my eyes, sacrilege.
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'I have watched the people of Craigavon…
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Good morning. It's newsletter number 99 – quite fitting that our 100th on Friday will be announcing the winner of our £1,000 voucher giveaway to celebrate our 10th birthday. If you haven't already entered you can do so here.Today, we're sharing this Letter to Editor sent to us by Carol Lindsay, from Lurgan. If you want to share your thoughts/opinion please send them to info@armaghi.com or simply reply to this email. Well, I'm sitting here beside the Craigavon Lakes reflecting on my memories of growing up in Brownlow. We arrived in 1970 and from the age of 11 I watched it being built up and knocked down and rebuilt. When the original leisure centre opened there was a display of photographs showing what the New City could look like.Today, I see that aspiration turn to reality in the photographs I have taken (below). I have watched the people of Craigavon struggle and fight to survive in the New City with poor mental health, high crime and domestic violence rates. But they held on and they survived. During these difficult years the saving grace was 'The Lakes' – a place to go when hearts were heavy and sadly some ended their life there, including a friend of mine whose car rolled into the water and she drowned. So, ABC Council open your minds and your hearts; this is not just a piece of land to be sold to SRC. This is a sacred space to many, myself included. I remember cycling across the red tiles at the bottom of the lakes before it was filled with water. I also remember the great joy it brought to the people who had endured the barren landscape that was Craigavon. My bottom line is SRC, you do not belong in this park, it belongs to the hearts and souls of everyone who ever lived here and walked its pathways. To work with a council that, in my opinion, has never cared about Craigavon – to bully your way into this so much-needed park against the wishes of the people is, in my eyes, sacrilege.