Special Projects
Green Flag Awards
What is the Green Flag Award?
The Green Flag Award Scheme is the respected national standards for parks and green spaces in England and Wales. It recognises and rewards the best green spaces, and encourages others to raise their standards. The award scheme began in 1996 as a means of recognising and rewarding the best green spaces in the country. It was also seen as a way of encouraging others to achieve the same high environmental standards, creating a benchmark of excellence in recreational green areas. Winning a Green Flag Award brings excellent publicity. Both the media and the public are becoming increasingly aware that a site flying a Green Flag is a high quality green space. Each site is judged on its own merits and suitability to the community it serves. Awards are given on an annual basis and winners must apply each year to renew their Green Flag status. Throughout the land the owners, managers and staff of many parks and green spaces work tirelessly to ensure their application for the prestigious Green Flag Award is successful.
Sites are judged against 8 criteria:
- A welcoming place
- Healthy, safe and secure
- Clean and well maintained
- Sustainability
- Conservation and heritage
- Community involvement
- Marketing
- Management
A Green Flag Award Winning Site:
- Is committed to raising standards in the maintenance and management of green spaces.
- Has access to additional marketing support from the Green Flag Award team.
- Provides opportunities for additional funding and regeneration
- Can prevent anti social behaviour
- Is a venue for healthy activity, learning and play
- Can create an attractive neighourhood and boosts local property values
- Joins an ever increasing number of winners - 47% of local authorities are flying the flag
We are proud to currently have the Green Flag award for seven of our parks: Alkincoats Park, Colne; Barrowford Park, Barrowford; Heyhead Park, Brierfield; Marsden Park, Nelson; Valley Gardens, Barnoldswick; and Victoria Park, Nelson, new in 2010 Walverden Park, Nelson and are hoping to roll this out to more parks in forthcoming years.
We are aiming to have 70% of the boroughs' parks with a prestigious Green Flag award by the year 2017 which is a respected national standard for parks and green spaces.
