Keep Britain Tidy to run Green Flag Award scheme until 2017
26 October 2012
Keep Britain Tidy is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the licence to run the Green Flag Award scheme for the next five years.
Together with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), the charity aims to increase the number of well-managed parks and other green spaces throughout the UK and will licence the scheme for use internationally.
Keep Britain Tidy will continue to manage day-to-day operations in England, with delivery in the other nations being overseen by its sister charities Keep Wales Tidy, Tidy Northern Ireland and Keep Scotland Beautiful.
The development and growth of the scheme will be supported by a number of other key partners including GreenSpace, supporting training and international expansion, the National Housing Federation who will support the expansion of the Award into the affordable housing sector and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens who will lead on delivery of the Green Flag Community Award.
Phil Barton, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “On behalf of the partners involved, we are delighted to have won the licence to run the Green Flag Awards for the next five years. This scheme is crucial to the army of professional men and women who manage our green spaces across the country and also to the local communities and volunteers who use and help to maintain them.
“Working with our partners we’re looking forward to further improve and strengthen the scheme. Over the next five years we will continue to spread best practice and raise the standard of our parks and green spaces, providing a range of benefits for local communities.”
The Green Flag Award was established in 1996 to recognise and reward the best parks and green spaces. Keep Britain Tidy took over the running of the scheme in 2009 and in the past four years the number of parks and green spaces that have reached the Green Flag standard has almost doubled to 1,424 in 2012.
“Keep Britain Tidy believes that quality green space is important to health and wellbeing and believes that everyone should be able to access quality green space close to their home,” said Barton. “The success of the Green Flag Award is underpinned by the sterling work of more than 800 volunteer judges - all of whom are green-space professionals – and the enthusiastic input of park friends’ groups in communities across the country,” he said.
Throughout November, the new partnership will be contacting applicants, judges and key supporting organisations with further details of the new arrangements and information about the 2013 application round.
Find out more about the Green Flag Award here.