Cheltenham’s Green Flag parks retain their status for another year

Hatherley Park, Montpellier Gardens, Naunton Park, Pittville Park, Springfields Park and Winston Churchill Memorial Gardens are six of 2,208 UK winners.

The award is the international quality mark for parks and green spaces.

After two years that have seen our parks and green spaces play a vital role for people through lockdowns as a place to relax, exercise and meet friends and family safely, the news that all these parks has achieved the Green Flag Award is testament to the hard work and dedication of the team that make the green space a great space that everyone can enjoy.

Pittville Park has also achieved the Green Heritage Site Accreditation, supported by Historic England, for the management of its historic features.

Peter Jarrett, chair of the Friends of Winston Churchill Memorial Gardens, said: “The Friends of Winston Churchill Memorial Garden are delighted to have our Green Flag status awarded for yet another year. We were particularly pleased that the judges recognised the extremely difficult challenges we faced following lockdown and the affect this had on many of the projects planned for the park. All efforts will now the focused on bringing these projects to fruition”

Chris Archibald, chair of the Friends of Pittville Park, said: “It is great news that Pittville Park has again been awarded Green Flag status and has retained its Green Heritage Site Accreditation.

“The Friends of Pittville look forward to working with the council’s green space team in the next year to help maintain the high standards of care the park receives."

Adam Reynolds, green space manager for Cheltenham Borough Council, continued: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a Green Flag Award again for so many of our green spaces and to have once again retained our Green Heritage Award for Pittville Park.

“The awards give us an enormous sense of pride and is an excellent example of community achievement celebrating the dedication from our volunteers, friend of groups, green space team, UBICO grounds maintenance and cleansing team and many others who work hard to maintain these beautiful areas to such a high standard.’’

Notes to editors:

The Green Flag Award Scheme (http://greenflagaward.org/) is run by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in partnership with Keep Scotland Beautiful, Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful.

Keep Britain Tidy is a leading environmental charity. It sets the standard for the management of parks and beaches, inspires people to be litter-free, to waste less and live more sustainably. It runs campaigns and programmes including the Great British Spring Clean, Eco-Schools, Love Parks, Eco-Schools, the Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces and the Blue Flag/ Seaside Awards for beaches. To find out more about Keep Britain Tidy, its campaigns and programmes visit www.keepbritaintidy.org.

Any green space that is freely accessible to the public is eligible to enter for a Green Flag Award.  Awards are given on an annual basis and winners must apply each year to renew their Green Flag Award status. A Green Flag Community Award recognises quality sites managed by voluntary and community groups. Green Heritage Site Accreditation is judged on the treatment of the site’s historic features and the standard of conservation.