By Sarah Robinson

Published at 11:12, Thursday, 19 July 2012

COPELAND has retained four Green Flag Awards for having some of the best community spaces in the country.

consulting: Allan Holliday

Egremont Castle and grounds, Trinity Gardens, St Nicholas’ Gardens and Distington Hall crematorium have kept their status for being well maintained and well managed, with excellent facilities.

The awards are given out annually and each year high standards have to be achieved to win them.

In addition, three of the sites – Trinity Gardens, St Nicholas’ Gardens and Egremont Castle – have retained their Green Heritage Site accreditation. For the first time, Distington Hall has been awarded heritage status.

This recognises high standards in the management and interpretation of sites of historic importance.

Councillor Allan Holliday, Copeland’s portfolio holder for environment and sustainability, said “Once again, the borough has achieved an impressive haul of Green Flag and Green Heritage Awards. This is a fantastic achievement and is down to the hard work of a range of individuals, community and friends of parks groups who have worked with us to ensure that the high standards expected by the judges have been maintained.

“These parks have been Green Flag Award winners for a number of years now. Achieving these standard is getting much harder, especially with the public sector funding cuts that we have seen, and which are set to continue.

“In fact, we know in the future that the only way we will be able to continue to achieve successes like this is by working with more volunteers and community groups.”

Flag-raising events will be held at each of the award-winning parks and will include members of the council’s parks team and the community group involved in the management of the facility.

Copeland’s parks have been winners at the Green Flag Awards since back in 2003.

The winners are among the 252 applicants across the North West this year, which have won awards. In Allerdale, Vulcan’s Park has also retained its the Green Flag status.

Paul Todd, Green Flag Award Scheme manager, told The Whitehaven News: “We are thrilled to announce yet another record-breaking year for Green Flag Award parks and green spaces. A Green Flag Award provides national recognition for the achievements of all those whose hard work and dedication has helped to create these fantastic places for all to enjoy.”

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk