The best parks in England - its official

1998 sees the second round of Green Flag Park Awards made by the Pesticides Trust [now PAN UK] and the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management. Last year seven parks in England won the award, and the right to fly the Green Flag Park. The first presentation ceremony was held at the popular Birmingham Botanical Gardens and attracted positive media coverage. Several of the winning parks then staged their own special events. Over the last year the award has gained momentum and wider recognition. Croxteth Hall in Liverpool is the venue this September for presenting the Green Flag to the sixteen 1998/99 winners. Liz Greenhalgh and John Newton report on developments since 1997.

Winners and losers

The Green Flag Park Award lasts for 12 months and for some of the parks that applied last year it has been a period of mixed fortunes. Several parks that were unable to reach the required standards last year have made significant improvements to their practices and have won an award for 1998/99. This is a mark of success for the Green Flag Park scheme. It shows that the award can galvanise everyone involved in making a successful park and provide something to aim for, as well as creating positive public recognition for the hard work and long term commitment that goes into sustaining a good park.
    West Ham Park, a Corporation of London run park in Newham, was unsuccessful last year. Although the standards of care and maintenance were high, the judges felt that the park managers had not taken sufficient steps to consult and involve the residents and wider community living around the park. This year it was recognised that progress had been made here and that the park merited an award. For West Ham Park, the issue of consultation with people who use the park and those who live around it will be something that the judges will look for particularly next year. In this instance, the Green Flag Award has helped to give shape to the park management and provided external impetus to make improvements.
    Many community groups and park managers who expressed interest in the first year but felt they were not yet ready to qualify for an award have worked hard to submit an application for this year. Already the Green Flag Park Award is proving to be a useful focus for improving the quality of our urban parks.

A credible award
The Green Flag is an independent award. The whole purpose is to generate public confidence in well run public parks. The credibility of the award therefore rests on a rigorous application of the standards set. As was acknowledged by park managers last year, the criteria are tough and demanding. Qualifying once for a Green Flag Park Award is no guarantee of straightforward success. Last year, Battersea Park was judged to be a worthy winner. This year the judges were worried by the deterioration of areas of the park not included in the current landscape restoration plan. Battersea Park has excelled in many areas, for example, the conservation work carried out in the lake and the landscape restoration programme, but the overall balance has, in the view of the judges, been (temporarily) lost as some areas of the park appear to be suffering.

Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, presenting last year's awards

Always room for improvement
The aim of the Green Flag Park Award is to give shape to public expectations and help to define a better model of parks provision. It is difficult to imagine a single park that could be perfect in every way. All applicants who fail to win an award are informed of the reasons for the decision and are encouraged to tackle the weaknesses identified by the judges. Similarly, even for those parks which qualify for an award there is usually much room for improvement. Hall Place in Bexley, an assured winner last year has used the award to take its work on nature conservation further. Queens Park, a Corporation of London Park in North London, has, according to the judges, gone from strength to strength.
    Since qualifying for an award last year, the park managers have linked up with residents to programme summer events, considered how best to make the park more accessible to disabled park users, and recycled leaves and other &lsquogreen waste&rsquo in the park rather than sending material to landfill sites.

The Green Flag manual
To build on the early success and in the name of openness, the Steering group has decided to publish a Green Flag Parks Manual. Before the introduction of this Award there was very limited promotion or public recognition of high quality public parks in Britain. The purpose of the award is to help establish agreed all-round standards that reflect not just the safer environmental qualities of reduced pesticide use but also the social value of a good park to its locality.
    The scheme is rapidly becoming the benchmark by which the quality of public parks are being measured. It gives voice to public expectations of good management, and provides a set of goals and standards for residents and community groups as well as for park managers. The Manual will act both as a guide for parks managers wishing to apply for an award, and as an indication for local community groups of what they should expect to see in terms of environmentally and socially sound parks management.

Environmental care and community involvement
The Award is judged on two major themes, environmental sustainability and community involvement and these are strongly reflected throughout the Manual. The criteria provide guidelines to the basic approach for environmentally, socially, and financially sound parks management. Involving people - park users, residents, community groups - and encouraging greater use of parks is a precondition for establishing not only public confidence but also relevance for modern urban life. Re-constituting public confidence in the value of parks is the ultimate aim of the Award.

Green Flag Park Criteria
The criteria for an Award are grouped under eight main headings that together make for a comprehensive definition of what a good park might be. They outline the standards that a Green Flag park must achieve and they set up targets for improvement. The headings define:

• how to create a sense that people are positively welcomed into a park 
• how best to ensure that the park is a safe and healthy environment 
• what to expect in the way of standards of cleanliness and maintenance 
• how a park can be managed in environmentally sensitive ways 
• the value of conservation and care of historic heritage 
• ways of encouraging community involvement 
• methods of promoting or marketing a park 
• how to reflect all of the above in a coherent and accessible management plan, statement or strategy.

The manual provides information to help managers achieve these standards with examples and case studies. No one park is expected to implement all the suggested practices. Instead park staff are expected to choose the most appropriate issues and add new ideas to the palette of suggestions and then to implement those which suit their park the best. However, there are a number of issues, for example those which are legislatively or regulatory driven, which parks will be expected to meet if they are to be successful in their application for an Award.
    The Manual approaches the park as a park visitor might. From the outside looking in: Is the park a welcoming place? Does it appear safe and is it well maintained? Aspects of park management covered steps taken to support sustainable practice and conservation, successful community participation and overall park management.
    The manual is not the only acceptable way of doing things, and indeed does not cover all the issues relevant to a good park. One of the principles behind the Award is to encourage innovation, new thinking, new ways of doing things as a part of raising the standards of parks management.
    In the environmental field the organisers are still learning how to minimise impact on the environment without prejudicing social needs and expectations. New research can flip the coin of environmental right and wrong - the manual makes it clear that park managers will be expected to keep abreast of changes in thinking.
    Similarly, opinions on what may or may not be appropriate for parks can change. The Award Steering Group welcomes any comments, criticism or ideas.
    The Manual should be seen as providing the guidance not only for Green Flag Award parks but also for sound practice in parks management in general, particularly regarding environmental and social aspects. Indications already are that it could also prove a useful text in training staff. With the management of many parks going through a period of uncertainty and change the arrival of the Green Flag Park Award and its accompanying Manual provide welcome and positive goals for the 21st century.

Liz Greenhalgh works for the Comedia/Demos group and John Newton is an ecological and environmental consultant

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 41, September 1998, pages 12-13]