Michael Moynihan: Park benches can be a much hotter topic than you'd expect

From Paris to Cork, the debate over benches reveals deeper tensions about design, policing, community needs and who public spaces serve

Three years ago, police in Stanhope, Kent, took away park benches and low-lying shrubbery from small parks because, they explained, the benches had provided 'places to gather' and their removal would help 'design out crime'.

The French probably have an expression that covers it. The Germans definitely have a word for it. The Basques probably have some kind of gesture which summarises it, and then a pintxo to commemorate it.

I refer to the sensation which washes over you when you see an event that you missed when it happened, but which you would now give anything to attend.