Six of Luton’s parks have been awarded Green Flag status in the national award scheme this year, an increase on last year’s five with the addition of Leagrave Park.
The awards recognise the best parks and open spaces in the UK, and Leagrave Park now joins Brantwood Park, Memorial Park, Peoples Park, Stockwood Park and Wardown Park as being recognised for having excellent facilities, being well managed and maintained, having high standards of safety and for engaging the local community. The recipients were announced during Keep Britain Tidy’s Love Parks week on 16 July.
Cllr Rachel Hopkins, Luton Council Portfolio holder with responsibility for Parks, said: “This is fantastic news and we’re delighted that six of our parks have received the Green Flag awards from Keep Britain Tidy. Parks are very important for health and wellbeing, and these awards demonstrate that residents are benefiting from green spaces of the highest quality. They’re also important for the local economy in helping to attract people and business to the town.
“We’re extremely proud of our green spaces in Luton and I would like to say a special thank you to our grounds service team and to the many volunteers, particularly Friends of Leagrave Park, who were key to this success of Leagrave Park being added this year, and to the Luton Friends of Parks and Green Spaces group, who work extremely hard to maintain our beautiful parks for everyone.”
Sasha Smith and Martin Rogers from Friends of Leagrave Park, said: “We are delighted to hear this fantastic news, which was one of the main aims when we originally founded friends of Leagrave Park. We look forward to seeing what the future has in store as our park continues to go from strength to strength.”
International Green Flag Award scheme manager Paul Todd said: “It’s fantastic that we have more Green Flag Awards in the UK than ever before, joined this year by 131 International winners.
“Each flag honours the thousands of staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to maintain the high standards demanded by the Green Flag Award. We congratulate each and every winner on their fantastic achievement.”
The Green Flag awards scheme was introduced in 1997 to establish agreed standards of good management and to bring people back into the parks, and Luton has been successful in continuing to meet these high standards year on year.
Visit the Green Flag Awards to find out more.
