Parkour group’s ‘fitting tribute’ gets community backing

A memorial bench dedicated to a young man who died in a tragic accident last year could soon be placed in Lerwick.

Ray Connor died in August at the age of 23 in Italy, in the town of Imperia. Mr Connor, who lived in Sumburgh, had been working on board the luxury yacht Hampshire 2, owned by British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, at the time of his death.

Northern Focus Parkour, a group Mr Connor was a part of and coached for, has now applied for permission to place a bench in the town in memory of their friend, as a “fitting tribute”.

The application for the bench was discussed at Lerwick Community Council on Monday, where community councillors gave the idea their full support, with no objections.

The parkour group would like to place the bench in Heddle’s Park, replacing one of the old wooden slat benches, and said it would be a “fitting tribute for friends and family of Ray to come and remember him for what he loved to do”.

The spot was one of the group’s favourite places to train, according to the application, which goes on to describe the influence that Mr Connor had on people around him: “Ray was a very well liked and respected individual in Shetland who helped the group coach around Shetland and even in Orkney at Kirkwall Grammar School with hundreds of students being taught by him.”