Third Green Flag for Holt Country Park

Holt Country Park has earned a third Green Flag in three years for its management and visitor facilities.

Green Flags are awarded every year to the best parks and open spaces in England and Wales, just as Blue Flags are given to beaches. The award scheme recognises excellence in managing these open spaces, and Green Flag winners must apply again each year to keep their flag. The award criteria for previous winners get tougher every year in three-year cycles, so Holt Country Park has had to keep improving to retain its flag.

Holt Country Park, which is owned and run by North Norfolk District Council, was the first Green Flag winner in Norfolk and, with the announcement today [17 July] of the 2007/08 winners, is one of only two Green Flag holders in the county.

A great deal of work has been done at the park (which is on the B1149 just south of Holt) in the last year. Adults with special needs from the Holt Day Services centre have helped weekly with projects around the park, including planting a wildflower garden around the new sculpture by the visitor centre (the sculpture of a giant, by local artist Mike Thody, was called 'Thol' in the new year after a competition to give it a name). With the help of Holt Town Council, park rangers have set up the Friends of Green Spaces - a group of local volunteers working to conserve open spaces in the Holt area. The park's extensive schedule of events has incorporated an arts programme, and interpretation signage around the park has been improved.

Councillor Hilary Nelson, NNDC's Cabinet Member for Countryside, said: "I am absolutely delighted that we have retained our Green Flag. Our countryside officers have worked hard and enthusiastically to enhance this wonderful facility and the green flag is well deserved. It only costs a pound for parking at Holt Country Park and it gives a great deal of pleasure to local people and our visitors, particularly children. We get a lot of young visitors from urban areas so it gives them not only great fun but also hands-on experience of our natural environment, and welcome exercise."

A record 551 Green Flags will be handed out for sites in England and Wales at an award ceremony at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on Friday, 27 July.

NOTES FOR EDITOR

• The Green Flag scheme is run by the Civic Trust for the Government's Communities and Local Government department and the Green Flag Advisory Board.
• For information about the Green Flag scheme and other winners, contact Caroline Williams of the Civic Trust on 0151 231 6903 or visit http://www.civictrust.org.uk/

ENDS