IN a record-breaking year for the Green Flag Award, as the scheme marks its Silver Jubilee, Harlow is honoured to have not just one, but four open spaces as one of 2,127 celebrating success today.

Today (Thursday 14 October 2021), council-run Harlow Town Park, Parndon Wood Nature reserve and Harlow Museum and Walled Gardens are raising Green Flag Awards. It is the sixth time that the Town Park has scooped the award, an amazing 13th in a row for Parndon Wood Nature reserve and Harlow Museum and Walled Garden’s second.

In addition to the council’s sites, Parndon Mill has also achieved Green Flag status once again.

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

After 18 months that have seen 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 these three sites have achieved the Green Flag Award is testament to the hard work and dedication of the teams of staff and volunteers that make these green spaces such great places for everyone to enjoy.

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 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.

Councillor Alastair Gunn, portfolio holder for environment, said: “This is fantastic news for our wonderful Town Park, for Parndon Wood and for the museum.

“To achieve the standards required to obtain these awards year after year is not easy. Our officers, colleagues at HTS and our wonderful groups of volunteers put in so much work each and every week to make these spaces somewhere that residents and visitors to our town can relax in, enjoy and be proud of. Thank you to everyone involved.”

In celebration of this year’s announcement, Green Flag Award is asking buildings and monuments around the UK to #GoGreenForParks today to show appreciation for the spaces that mean so much to people. In Harlow, the Civic Centre and Harlow Playhouse will be ‘going green’ tonight.