Award-winner: Riddlesdown is one of six open spaces in Croydon and Bromley, managed by the City of London, to have retained their prestigious Green Flag status
Six outstanding open spaces in Croydon and Bromley – Coulsdon Common; Farthing Downs and New Hill; Kenley Common; Riddlesdown; Spring Park and West Wickham Common – have all retained their prestigious Green Flag status, recognising them as some of the very best managed sites in the world.
The award-winning sites are all managed by the City of London Corporation.
Croydon Council, which manages more than 120 parks and open spaces, has been awarded just two Green Flags – for Wandle Park and Happy Valley. That’s an improvement on 2023, when the council got a derisory one Green Flag…
The Green Flag award identifies and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of recreational outdoor spaces across the country.
The Green Flag Award scheme is run by the environmental charity, Keep Britain Tidy.
Each site was assessed by an independent panel of judges on several criteria, including accessibility and signage, safety, cleanliness, community engagement and how the management of the site is helping to combat the effects of climate change.
Five of the City Commons sites also received Green Heritage Status, in recognition of their historic features and high standard of conservation.
Bridleway in the mist: Coulsdon Common also ticks all the Green Flag boxes
Green Heritage Site Accreditation, supported by Historic England, is given in recognition of achieving the required standard in the management and interpretation of a site with local or national historic importance.
In total, the City Commons across south London cover 680 acres. All are protected from being built on by special legislation.
Many are Sites of Special Scientific Interest or Sites of Nature Conservation Importance, and they make up part of the South London Downs National Nature Reserve.
“Peppered across south London, every one of these green spaces offers something unique, whether it’s the exceptionally rare heathland of West Wickham Common, or Farthing Downs, home to the largest ancient scheduled monument in Greater London,” said Ben Murphy, chairman of the City Corporation’s Epping Forest and Commons Committee.
“Every year, the judges’ standards rise. These awards demonstrate just how effective our management plans are in protecting and preserving these open spaces for future generations to enjoy.
“It also shows how the City of London Corporation’s investment is having a real impact on local communities in and around our capital city.
“I would like to thank both our hard-working staff and passionate team of volunteers, who are the real winners of this award.”
The City of London Corporation manages a network of 11,000 acres of internationally important open spaces across London and southeast England – including Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath and West Ham Park – investing more than £38million a year.
Many of these sites operate as charitable trusts and are run at little or no cost to the communities they serve.
In total, they attract over 47million visitors every year – more than three times the number who go to Premier League football matches every season, and almost eight times the number of annual visitors to the Grand Canyon.
The awards have been announced in Love Parks Week. Or what in Croydon under executive Mayor Jason Perry has become “don’t do much for our parks at all week”.
Piss-poor Perry, the £82,000 per year executive Mayor, as you’d expect, spent some of his valuable time turning out for another photo op, to mark the fact that Happy Valley had had its Green Flag status restored.
According to one insider: “The Council stopped applying for Green Flag status for any of its sites when it went bankrupt the first time. The Green Flag accreditation costs money.
“Happy Valley always used to be a Green Flag site. Croydon used to have more Green Flag sites, but some of them definitely wouldn’t get it again in their current state.”
Photo op Perry: using your money to buy his votes
But it’s good of Mayor Perry to spend public money on restoring Green Flag status to an area in Conservative-voting Coulsdon.
This, remember, is the same Mayor Perry who earlier this year was having meetings with the owners of a posh golf club about the possibility of handing over to them a big chunk of Addington Hills.
“Love Parks Week shines a light on one of our borough’s best features – our amazing parks and green spaces,” Perry said this week, perhaps not realising that it shines a light on the neglect of around 120 council-managed parks and green spaces.
Perry referred to “the incredible people who protect and maintain” the borough’s parks, where most of the council’s parks staff have been made redundant in recent years. The council is increasingly reliant on various friends’ groups volunteering their time, expertise, enthusiasm and, often, money, to maintain parks to decent standards.
“We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve restored Green Flag status at Happy Valley, Coulsdon, adding to our already stellar Wandle Park,” Perry said.
“We hope to see even more parks joining the list next year.” Perry failed to state how the council was going to achieve that, or pay for it. But it will be the year before an election, so Perry, the Mayor who has hiked Council Tax by 21% since 2023, will doubtless find some dosh from somewhere.
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