Telford Town Park has been named England’s cleanest park in a new study

Edinburgh scored highest across the whole UK, while Telford’s award-winning Town Park topped the rankings in England.

With the October half-term around the corner, the experts at LitterBins.co.uk wanted to discover the UK’s cleanest parks for families to visit this autumn.

Their study analysed some of the UK’s most popular parks based on TripAdvisor reviews, Google reviews, and overall quality score. The study also analysed the area’s local dissatisfaction with rubbish disposal to reveal the UK’s cleanest parks.

Telford Town Park, which attracts around 700,000 visitors each year, received a high rating of 4.6/5 on Google. The park also earned its high score due to Telford earning the lowest dissatisfaction with rubbish disposal score in the study, at just 13/85.

Telford and Gateshead were the only two towns to make the top ten – all other top-scoring parks were located in the UK’s biggest cities including Edinburgh, London, Cardiff, Belfast and Birmingham.

Telford Town Park, which has held a prestigious Green Flag since 2004, is owned and managed by Telford & Wrekin Council and supported by the Friends of Telford Town Park and maintenance contractor, idverde.

There are 54 litter bins within the 450 acres of the Town Park. In total these are emptied more than 19,000 times a year, with bins emptied daily or more often during peak periods.

The park has its own dedicated Rangers team who carry out daily checks and regularly patrol the area, and park users can quickly and easily alert the Council to any litter issues by using the handy MyTelford app.

There is also an active Friends of Town Park volunteer group who aide with work including litter picking.

Additionally, in 2021, the Council launched a ‘recycling on the go’ campaign, installing specialist recycling bins into council-owned parks across the borough including 20 across Telford Town Park, enabling visitors to recycle their rubbish while enjoying the park.

Councillor Carolyn Healy (Lab), Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Planning & Sustainability, said:

“This new study is a fantastic pat on the back for everyone involved in keeping our Town Park so beautiful, from the visitors who use our bins so diligently, to our partners at idverde who maintain the park and its bins so well, and the volunteers in the Friends group whose dedication and hard work is hugely appreciated.”

Councillor Angela McClements (Lab), Cabinet Member for Leisure, Tourism, Culture & The Arts, added:

“I’m delighted that this study shines a light on the satisfaction levels among our park users. It’s great to hear that they’re pleased with the park and it’s wonderful to see Telford punching above its weight once again, topping a national poll. Rightly so.”

Adrian Smith, Chair of Friends of Telford Town Park, said:

“This is wonderful news and a reflection on everyone involved in the town park. It is nice to be involved in keeping the town park clean and tidy. Everyone needs to play a part in helping to maintain the town park to high standard.”

Shaun Rhodes, Operational Delivery Manager at idverde, said

“As the service provider for Telford & Wrekin Council this is a great result for idverde.

“The team work hard seven days a week. As well as the cleansing operations they maintain the open spaces, shrub and flower borders and a daily play area inspection. All of this ensures that the park is clean, maintained and is safe for all users.”