Harlow Council is celebrating once again after receiving prestigious Green Flag Awards for its Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens, Harlow Town Park and Parndon Wood Nature Reserve.
The three sites join 2,247 others in the UK to achieve the award, which is the international quality mark for parks and green spaces.
For Parndon Wood it is the 17th time in a row the reserve has won the award, the Town Park’s 10th in a row and the Museum and Walled Gardens’ sixth.
In a further accolade, Harlow Museum & Walled Gardens has also achieved the Green Heritage Site Accreditation. This is supported by Historic England and is for the management and promotion of the museum gardens’ historic features.
The Town Park and the Walled Gardens are maintained by council staff, staff from the council’s maintenance company HTS and local volunteers. Parndon Wood Nature Reserve is maintained by council staff and volunteers.
Green Flag Award Scheme Manager, Paul Todd MBE, said:
“Congratulations to everyone involved in the Harlow Museum walled gardens, Harlow Town Park and Parndon Wood Nature Reserve who have worked tirelessly to ensure that it achieves the high standards required for the Green Flag Award.
“Quality parks and green spaces like these make the country a heathier place to live and work in, and a stronger place in which to invest.
“Crucially, these sites are vital green spaces for communities in Harlow to enjoy nature, and during the ongoing cost of living crisis it is a free and safe space for families to socialise. It also provides important opportunities for local people and visitors to reap the physical and mental health benefits of green space.”
Councillor Nicky Purse, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Environment, said:
“Once again huge congratulations to everyone – the staff, the volunteers and the HTS operatives – involved in this fantastic achievement. Achieving Green Flag Awards year-on-year is no mean feat and reflects the high standards of care which goes into maintaining these green and open spaces.”
Councillor Danielle Brown, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Culture and Community, added:
“As part of Building Harlow’s future and our mission to ‘transform our council’, we want to optimise our discretionary service offering. Meeting the Green Flag standards every year ensures that we are always improving these facilities and what they have to offer. This year, the museum, on its first attempt, has been successful in also achieving the Green Heritage Site Accreditation. This reflects the hard work of our museum staff and volunteers and the investment we continue to put into the museum to restore its historic features.”
The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, 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.