HAVE you ever taken a moment to sit on a public bench and wonder why it's there?

The answer of course is easy people. If you enjoy watching life go by, then someone's already done the research for you.

So take a minute, park your backside and look around...

THE Memorial Park in Keynsham commemorates the local casualties from the 1914-18 conflict.

It must have once been a magical place, until some idiot decided to slam an elevated concrete dual-carriageway right through the middle of it. 'Age shall not weary them, but vehicle exhausts will lead to a nasty chest infection and eczema' the Department of Transport planners' motto.

In the upper part of the Memorial Park, near the imaginatively christened Upper Memorial Park Play Area, there are two brown, steel benches, as cold to sit on as they sound.

One looks across to the playground. A few yards away is a circular puddle of flowers. It takes real determination to make nature so utterly boring; a riot of annual colour plopped in a flat, round hole of grass.

This is a real 'nearly' place: the setting is 'nearly' beautiful, the flower bed 'nearly' attractive, the bench 'nearly' comfortable.

How much effort would it take to make this a 'special' place? Well, about as much effort as thinking up a better name for a children's playground than Upper Memorial Park Play Area.

Because of the metal, the bench is cold and quickly numbs your backside. Indeed, anyone suffering from toothache would be well advised to lay their cheek here and breathe a sigh of relief.

On the other hand, come the summer, this could be heaven, although as temperatures rise and the metal warms, roasted chestnuts spring to mind!