Covid memorial garden design approved and opening date set
Designs for a memorial garden to remember the West Lothian victims of the Covid pandemic have been approved, paving the way for it to open in July.
The garden will be dedicated to the 475 people who died in the county from the illness. It is to be created on parkland immediately adjacent to Livingston’s Civic Centre, alongside the pathway leading up to the town centre.
It will be one of a series of memorials to those who lost their lives during the pandemic which all local authorities are planning as part of a national project called Remembering Together. More than 500 local people, from primary school children to NHS staff and care home residents, were asked for their views on what form a memorial should take. An exhibition of designs was displayed in Linlithgow Halls last year.
The total budget for the memorial is £120,000, the bulk of which will be spent this year on its construction and installation.
A key feature of the garden is a forged steel structure known as The Ribbon, which travels around the curving interior of the garden. A report to West Lothian council’s executive committee said the design included plants with symbolic meanings to “allow for people to reflect on the feedback that many shared during the pandemic, i.e. the soothing influence that nature holds during difficult times”.
Councillor Pauline Stafford said: “There’s collective trauma across the board from every generation from what the pandemic has left behind. I think we need to acknowledge that people are still living with long Covid, day in and day out.”