Latest news with #greenSpaces
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The Bexley and Bromley Parks among UK's best with 2025 Green Flag Awards
Several parks across Bexley and Bromley have been officially recognised as some of the finest in the country, after winning prestigious Green Flag Awards for 2025. The annual awards, regarded as the international quality benchmark for parks and green spaces, celebrate well-managed, welcoming, and environmentally sustainable outdoor areas. Among this year's 2,250 UK winners are standout sites in both boroughs, reflecting the hard work of local authorities, volunteers, and community groups. In Bexley, Lesnes Abbey Wood, managed by Bexley Council, has been awarded the prestigious flag. Lesnes Abbey Wood (Image: Newsquest) Bromley also boasts several winners, all managed by idverde for Bromley Council. These include Biggin Hill Recreation Ground, Cator Park, Chislehurst and Walden Recreation Ground, Darrick and Newstead Wood, Hayes Common, High Elms Country Park, Kelsey Park, Keston Common, Queens Gardens, and South Hill Wood. Other sites in Bromley have received additional awards. West Wickham Common, managed by the City of London, has been given the Green Heritage Site Accreditation. This recognises sites that meet extra criteria and care for, share, and celebrate the heritage of their locations. The Green Flag Community Award, which recognises quality green spaces managed by voluntary and community groups, has been given to Hoblingwell Wood and Recreation Ground, managed by Friends of Hoblingwell, and Winsford Gardens, supervised by Penge Green Gym. In Bexley, the Sidcup Place Community Garden has also received the Green Flag Community Award. The Green Flag Award is managed by Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. This year marks the 29th anniversary of the scheme, which aims to recognise and reward the best green spaces in the country. Four parks, which received their first Green Flag Award in 1997, have managed to maintain it every year since. Keep Britain Tidy's chief executive, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, said: "We are thrilled to see that an incredible 2,250 sites have met the standards required for a Green Flag Award, reflecting the tireless work of the people tasked with caring for and improving these crucial national assets. "Our quality parks and green spaces make the UK a healthier place in which to live and work, and a stronger place in which to invest." She added that the Green Flag Award sets the standard for caring for these sites amidst growing recognition that our green spaces can be part of the solution to climate change. The charity believes that the standards expected for the Green Flag Award should be a minimum for every park. They aim for a significant increase in the number of sites achieving Green Flag Award status by 2030, so that people, wherever they live, can access and enjoy safe, high-quality green space. Erika Diaz Petersen, Historic England's principal national landscape adviser, added: "We congratulate this year's winners for their achievements in reaching Green Flag Award standards for looking after our vital green infrastructure. "Heritage is at the heart of our green infrastructure networks, from public parks to our canal network, providing crucial benefits for people and nature, and a critical resource for climate resilience." The Green Flag Award scheme sets the benchmark standard for the management of recreational outdoor spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Green mission aims to raise £1bn to bring nature into UK towns and cities
A coalition of environmental and heritage bodies has launched a billion-pound mission to bring nature into the heart of urban areas in the UK. The first phase of the Nature Towns and Cities initiative will involve £15.5m being invested in 40 towns and cities across the four nations. Schemes that will be funded range from the launch of a large regional park to improving micro green spaces on the banks of canals and rivers. Innovative projects include a 'greening permit' scheme allowing citizens to cultivate public spaces, and an 'environmental justice map' to pinpoint areas of greatest need. The mission, billed as the first of its kind, is led by a partnership between the National Trust, Natural England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which is providing the £15.5m. Its ultimate aim is to grow a bigger coalition and attract £1bn from private, philanthropic and public sources by 2035 to give at least 5 million people access to green space a short walk from home and provide 1 million children with an opportunity to play in nature close to their front doors. Hilary McGrady, the director general at the National Trust, said: 'Everyone, everywhere should have easy and local access to nature and green spaces. When 85% of the UK population lives in built-up urban areas, it is our duty to reach them.' The partnership points out that over the past decade, cuts to local authority spending mean that green spaces have been neglected. Two-thirds of households in England, for example, do not have access to a decent-sized green space within a 15-minute walk of home. Areas benefiting from the first round of funding include Portsmouth in the south of England, Fife in south-east Scotland and Port Talbot in south Wales. Ealing in west London will receive almost £1m to ready the borough for the creation of a 586-hectare (1,448-acre) regional park. In Lewisham, south-east London, projects will focus on historically underserved Black, African and Caribbean communities. A greening permit scheme modelled after 'le permis de végétaliser' in Paris is to be launched in Bristol, allowing residents and associations to cultivate public spaces. In Bradford, West Yorkshire, where life expectancy can differ by 11 years between urban and rural wards, grant money will be used to increase nature-based social-prescribing. North Lanarkshire in central Scotland will use its new funds to create an environmental justice map, pinpointing areas of greatest need, while in Belfast funds will be spent on initiatives including improving the city's network of alleys, and areas around its peace walls. As part of the announcement, Birmingham was declared the UK's first 'nature city' and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole in Dorset (BCP) collectively named the first 'nature towns'. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Birmingham and BCP councils received grant funding in 2019 in a precursor programme to Nature Towns and Cities. BCP has made a series of improvements to green spaces, with just one, Hoburne wildlife pond in Christchurch, a good example of the sort of scheme that, while relatively modest, can make a difference to people's lives and nature. More than 50 volunteers and local business people helped create the small pond and a house martin tower designed to provide a nesting site for the migratory bird. Janna Bloice, the urban greening project manager, said there had been a positive response to the project. Neighbours looked after the pond and it had inspired some to introduce wild areas to their gardens. 'People come and spend a few peaceful minutes here. Having access to a little bit of nature makes a huge difference,' she said.
BBC News
15-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Total of 27 South West parks win Green Flag awards
Parks and other green spaces in Devon and Cornwall have achieved Green Flag spots across the two counties were recognised with the Green Flag award and five with the Green Flag community awards recognised spaces across the region which achieved the international quality standard for parks and green Diaz Petersen, Historic England's principal national landscape adviser, said: "Heritage is at the heart of our green infrastructure networks, from public parks to our canal network, providing crucial benefits for people and nature, and a critical resource for climate resilience." In Cornwall, Camborne Recreation Ground, run by Camborne Town Council, received the Green Flag parks and green spaces in Devon received recognition in the Green Flag included Grand Western Canal Country Park, Freedom Fields Park in Plymouth, Courtenay Park in Newton Abbot, and parks and green spaces in the South West were also awarded the Green Flag community award. Spaces awarded Green Heritage Site Accreditation included Princess Gardens, Royal Terrace Gardens and Tessier Green Flag award was launched 29 years ago and set the benchmark international quality classification for parks and green Peresen added: "Historic England is pleased to support Green Heritage Site Accreditation, which recognises the achievements of Green Flag Award winners who meet additional criteria and care for, share and celebrate the heritage of their sites."Keep Britain Tidy's chief executive, Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, congratulated the added: "Our quality parks and green spaces make the UK a heathier place in which to live and work, and a stronger place in which to invest."
CBC
29-06-2025
- General
- CBC
New community garden in Montreal is rooted in Indigenous practices
The Garden of the World and First Nations, in the Milton Park neighbourhood, is a space for residents to gather, grow food, and reconnect with nature. Organizers, volunteers, and local leaders say it's a small but powerful step toward building more inclusive and sustainable green spaces in the city.
BBC News
29-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Residents welcome new park at former Orgreave Colliery location
Residents have welcomed work to create a new park at the site where Orgreave Colliery stood in South Yorkshire. Thousands of homes were recently built in Waverley, and residents said it was vital that recreational facilities were also Harworth said the 20-acre Highwall Park would feature landscaped walkways, wildlife-friendly ponds, cycling routes, play areas and open spaces for sport and park is being developed in three phases, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said, shaped by feedback gathered during a community consultation held last year. The first phase of the park is expected to open later this Park would provide a link between the recently-built Olive Lane and the nearby Waverley Lakes, Harworth park's name references a mining term for an unexcavated section of an opencast mine. Janice and Bob Bolan, who have lived in Waverley for four years, said it was "about time" new green spaces were introduced. "We've been here without any facilities basically, so this is all good and very much welcomed," Mrs Bolan said."Going from here all the way down to the lakes - it's quite exciting," Mr Bolan Massie, Harworth national director of development, said the park had always been part of the firm's plans for the area."We've worked hard over the past year to prepare this complex brownfield site for transformation," he said."It's exciting to be at the stage where we can bring this new green space to life."Another Waverley resident, Chloe Emery, said the park would be a "perfect" area four her four children to play. "It's what we need, it's what all kids need," she will keep them out of trouble and give them something to do."A new GP surgery is set to open in Waverley soon, with Waverley Junior Academy primary school set to expand in September. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
