Tilgate Park gets high praise from Green Flag judges

Tilgate Park gets high praise from Green Flag judges

Tilgate Park received its ninth Green Flag Award in nine years in July – and now the judges have given it another seal of approval.

The judges who toured the beautiful park earlier this year have sent the council a feedback report, which highlights strengths and weaknesses.

The judges said: “Tilgate Park represents the very best of what can be achieved from a well managed and maintained public open space.”

Many aspects of the park were singled out for praise, including the new playground, the lack of dog fouling, a park free of litter, graffiti and vandalism, the re-use of leaves and manure on-site, the input from a wide range of community groups and the strong management of the park.

Tilgate Park, set in 400 acres, scooped its first Green Flag in 2002.

Winners are judged to be welcoming, safe and well maintained and involve the local community.

Tilgate Park boasts a nature centre, golf course, lakes, lawns and gardens, woodland walks and bridleways. The park is open all year round. Tilgate Nature Centre is open from 10am-6pm until October 30 and 10am-4pm afterwards.

The Walled Garden is open everyday from 10am-5pm (until 5.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays). The Walled Garden Café opens from 10am-4.30pm everyday (and until 5pm on weekends and bank holidays) until October 30 and from 10.30am-3pm (and until 3.30pm on weekends and bank holidays) afterwards.

The judges added: “Tilgate is an outstanding park which clearly – and easily – scored sufficient points to retain its Green Flag status. To achieve such an excellent standard is of great credit to all those who work there. Their commitment and feeling of ownership to the park is palpable to anyone who visits.

“The judges are acutely aware that such high levels are neither easy to achieve, or cheap to maintain, but Tilgate Park is remarkable in both these respects and worthy of the highest praise.

“Crawley is lucky to have such a jewel in its crown – but also has a responsibility preserve it.”

Councillor Lenny Walker, Cabinet member for Leisure and Cultural Services,

said: “The judges’ feedback is superb. We know that Tilgate Park is fantastic but it’s great to hear professionals giving it the seal of approval.

“We scored extremely highly but there are still improvements we can make and we’ll take these on board as part of the long-term improvements to the park.”

In July Tilgate Park, along with Goffs Park and Memorial Gardens, all achieved Green Flag status. Goffs Park and Memorial Gardens have both had Green Flags for three consecutive years.

The Green Flag Award is sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government, English Heritage and Natural England.

For more details on Crawley’s parks visit www.crawley.gov.uk/parks. For more details on Green Flag Awards visit www.greenflagaward.org.uk

This entry was posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 12:14 and is filed under About, Community, Entertainment, Events, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.