Five Gedling borough parks have been named as some of the UK’s best following a record-breaking year.
Gedling Country Park, Arnot Hill Park, Burton Road Jubilee Park, Bestwood Country Park and for the first time, Breck Hill Park, joined a record number of parks and green spaces collecting a Green Flag Award – the international quality mark for parks and green spaces.
It was the first time Breck Hill Park in Woodthorpe scooped an award. Last year, it received funding of £100,000 for a new children’s play area following a bid by Gedling Borough Council to FCC Communities, a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community, conservation and heritage projects.
Arnot Hill Park retains the award for the 16th consecutive year, Gedling Country Park for the 7th year in a row, Burton Road Jubilee received the award for the seventh time and Bestwood Country Park has received the award for the third year in a row since the maintenance of the park was taken over by Gedling Borough Council.
The five parks join over 2,000 sites across the country in collecting the award for 2022.
Leader of Gedling Borough Council, Councillor John Clarke said: “We are very pleased to see that four has now turned into a fabulous five as we celebrate the addition of Breck Hill Park to our prestigious list of Green Flag parks in the borough.
“Our parks are incredibly valuable to our communities and these awards recognise their importance and how the council and communities work together to improve them year on year and provide spaces that improve people’s health and wellbeing.
“We work very hard every year to meet the standards and criteria set by the awards so I would like to thank our hard working parks and open spaces staff and the Friends of Groups for their dedication. We know residents of Gedling are very proud of our parks, and this achievement goes to show what wonderful spaces we have in the borough.”
The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.
Keep Britain Tidy’s Accreditation Manager Paul Todd said: “I would like to congratulate everyone involved in making the five parks worthy of a Green Flag Award.
These parks are vital green space for the community in Gedling. This award is testament to all the hard work of staff and volunteers, who do so much to ensure that it maintains the high standards demanded by the Green Flag Award.”
