Чтение и письмо: заметки и связный текст (связность абзацев)

First of all, thank you for the time. I'd like to start by asking a question: who here has eaten something grown on Mill Street? This tomato came from bed 17. A year ago, that bed was a derelict plot behind a fence. I'll cover two points — what worked and what didn't — and then make one request.
To begin with, what worked. All forty beds were let by March, and there is a waiting list of twenty-three families. More striking, 61 % of the bed holders had never grown anything before, which is why the classroom matters: nine workshops, a hundred and forty children. The point I want to make is this | the garden is SKILLS and neighbours | not just vegetables. Ashford's figure — 55 % of visitors came back to learn — applies here too.
Having said that, not everything worked, which brings me to my second point. The standpipe is too far from the back beds, and two were abandoned in July. The raised beds in the contaminated corner cost £4,000 over budget; we covered this from the reserve, which now stands at £900. And the orchard was not planted, because the grant was refused — no classroom yet, a chicken-and-egg problem.
That brings me to the request: £6,000, for a second standpipe and fifteen more beds. The expected outcome is a cleared waiting list and fifteen more families, with running costs covered by rents of £2,200 a year. If the full sum is refused, plan B is the standpipe alone, paid from rents over two years.
To conclude | a year ago this was a fence and a BIN. | Now it is the only place in the street where three generations talk to each other. Over to questions.