It’s official – our parks are the best!
18 July 2008
Five parks
across the Rochdale borough have now achieved the coveted ‘Green
Flag’ status – a national benchmark for quality, announced during a
ceremony in London on 17 July 2008.
Whilst the Memorial Gardens in Rochdale town centre, Queen’s
Park in Heywood and Hare Hill Park in Littleborough retained their
flags, Broadfield Park and Milnrow Memorial Park have been given
the award for the first time.
Peter Cunningham, our Head of Environmental
Management said: "We are absolutely delighted to have not only
retained Green Flag status for three of the borough’s parks awarded
last year, but also see Milnrow Memorial Park and Broadfield Park
become part of this standard.
“The improvements we have carried out over the past twelve
months have made a huge difference to the parks and the judges were
impressed with the high standards."
The Green Flag Scheme
The Green Flag scheme, which is run by the Civic Trust, was
introduced 10 years ago and was inspired by the Blue Flag scheme
for clean beaches. A flag is awarded to spaces that are welcoming,
safe and well-maintained with a strong community involvement.
The scheme recognises the value of green spaces in
communities - particularly urban environments - and rewards
excellent standards for park management. Awards are given on an
annual basis and winners must apply each year to renew their Green
Flag status.
In order to qualify, parks and green spaces must be freely
accessible to the public and have given regard to sustainability,
conservation and heritage.
Councillor Wera Hobhouse, Cabinet Member for Environment and
Sustainability said the parks are highly valued by users: "This is
fantastic news, and the result of much hard work from staff and
friends groups.
“Achievement of the Green Flag status, which every park strives
to achieve, shows that our parks are amongst the best in the
country. What’s more, it’s our local community which reaps the
benefits, so go out and enjoy!”
More celebrations
Over the next few weeks, each park will be celebrating with a
Green Flag being raised in recognition of the award. Further
announcements will be made once more details are available.
Councillor Hobhouse added: “We certainly won’t be stopping here.
We have an ambitious target of attaining at least a further five
Green Flags throughout the borough’s green spaces by March 2011, as
well as ensuring we retain the existing Green Flag parks well into
the future, so we’re going to be busy!”
We are now working with a ‘friends’ group in Middleton to
achieve Green Flag status next year.