Council to invest £1m into borough's parks

The announcement comes amid a raft of significant investments from the council, totalling more than £16m, which have been designed to make the borough cleaner, greener, safer and more enjoyable for all residents as the borough recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The council’s investment into parks will focus on maintaining Green Flag award standards in the borough’s parks and bringing more parks up to this standard so that they are amongst the best in the country.

Telford and Wrekin has been awarded three Green Flags for its parks in 2021, with the accolade going to Telford Town Park, Hartshill District Park and Dawley Park and the council plans to use the newly announced £1m investment to maintain these parks’ Green Flag status while working towards achieving further Green Flags for more of the borough’s parks so that they are recognised as being among the best in the country.

Cllr Carolyn Healy, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Green Spaces, Natural and Historic Environment, said:

“Parks are at the heart of our communities. They are places for us to meet, play, exercise and relax. Telford Town Park alone receives around 750,000 visits each year. It provides a wonderful space for residents to enjoy and also and bringing visitors into the borough from across the West Midlands and beyond.

“We work in partnership with town and parish councils and Friends groups to manage the sites to a high standard which has been recognised once again this year by the awarding of Green Flag status. With the £1m investment, we will maintain these standards and look to achieve further Green Flags for other parks.”

“Telford & Wrekin Council has a vision to protect, care and invest to create a better borough, and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to allocate this money to invest in our wonderful parks which have been such a lifeline to our community through the COVID-19 pandemic and which offer the promise of brighter times ahead for all residents.”

In 2020, following a Green Flag announcement for Telford Town Park, the park went on to win a Green Flag People’s Choice award, making it one of the UK’s top 10 best-loved Green Flag parks.

Cllr Healy commented: “If you’d like to support our Green Flag parks, it would be wonderful to see residents vote for one of our parks in this year’s People’s Choice awards. Last year, your votes led to Telford Town Park being named as one of the top 10 favourite Green Flag parks in the UK, which was fantastic. We would love to see the borough represented again in 2021.”

Voting is open now for the Green Flag Award People’s Choice Award.

Members of the public can vote for their favourite Green Flag Award winning park to make it into the UK top 10 by clicking on the winners' map at www.greenflagaward.org, finding their favourite park and following instructions to 'Vote for this site'. Voting closes on 14 November.