Last week I was fortunate to attend two fascinating engagements.

Green Flag judging

One of my visits was to south Derbyshire where I attended this year’s Green Flag judges debriefing event hosted by Chris Worman MBE Parks and green space manager for South Derbyshire DC, who held the event at their Rosliston Forestry Centre.

With twenty plus judges attending this meeting, it further gave the opportunity to network and share ideas and catch up with how other local authorities are coping with the current economic situation.

Chris is one of Green Flag’s senior judges having been so since 1996 when the scheme first started. He is also a member of the Midlands Parks Forum and Parks Management Association and has been a leading figure in promoting the works of parks officers for many years.

Chris Worman MBE, welcoming Green Flag judges 

The object of the debriefing was to give feedback on how we thought the judging had been and to consider what improvements can be made to the judging criteria. Also thought was given to improving the judging system to account for the many different scenarios we encounter while judging such a diverse category of parks and public open spaces. 

This year the Green Flag scheme awarded 2014 Green Flag awards, 138 Green Heritage sites and 398 Green Flag community awards, with over 500 judges involved in assessing all these sites during the year.   

The Green Flag scheme also is operated overseas with over 17 international countries taking part that included territories as far afield as South Korea and Mexico this year. 

Victoria Park, Stafford 

Most judges are either retired or currently employed parks managers and council officers who give up their own time to judge these diverse public open spaces. The opportunity to judge brings many benefits to those involved, including keeping up-to-date and having the opportunity to network with fellow professional colleagues. This only improves their own understanding of the difficult challenges local authorities are now facing in the aftermath of Covid and during this terrible recession.

Green Flag are always looking to take on new judges, so if anyone with some experience of managing green space or indeed maintaining it and are interested they should contact Green Flag and ask for details for being a judge.

Talking to several current officers, parks funding is no doubt only going to be drastically cut further with councils facing a major reduction in their finances in the coming years until we ride out this tumultuous period.

Many also stated that recruitment in the industry was proving to be very difficult. Trying to find young people for some council apprenticeship schemes, was proving nigh on possible. 
 
For me the scheme is important as it enables local authorities to benchmark their facilities and strive to achieve and maintain a national standard of maintenance to ensure that their parks are operational and safe. We have all seen how important these green spaces have been for local communities during the pandemic.

For me, I would like to see many more local authorities apply for Green Flag status. We have well over 27,000 parks and public opens paces that could be judged. We are only currently judging a tip of that iceberg with the 2000-plus Flags awarded. 

The benefits of having a Green Flag award are numerous; it brings people together; it focuses the mind and above all parks are essentially receiving an annual appraisal or audit by a trained and experienced practitioner. That is itself worth a lot more than the fee charged to enter for the award.

Having a Green Flag is likely to lead to more funding opportunities if you have shown to meet these standards and are working hard to engage and work with your local communities. 

For me, these parks and public open spaces are priceless and should be invested in to ensure they are here for future generations. With climate change now a major issue, these natural assets are even more important than ever in protecting our environment. We need trees and grass areas to help provide shade and cooling – clearly highlighted during the recent spells of hot weather.

The carbon sinks of these open spaces are vital for the future of our environment. We should be planting more trees and investing in this essential green infrastructure. 

Let’s hope that Green Flag can continue their great work and we continue to see investment and improvements to our national green spaces. 

College handover

My other visit following an invite by Scott Grieve, marketing manager of GGM Groundscare to their official handover of a batch of machinery to Myerscough College in Preston.

GGM Groundscare are a specialist supplier of ground care equipment and provider throughout the North-West of England and Yorkshire. After an extremely wet and long car journey, I finally arrived at the college to be met by Scott and Jack Fielding from GGM and one of my old work colleagues, Andy Darley from Baroness.

After a protracted procurement process lasting a few months with demos of machinery and many meetings, GGM were successful in their bid to supply a range of machinery and equipment to the college on a five-year lease and maintenance deal. 

Official handover of machinery to the college 

I spoke to David Leach Bsc (hons) Cert Ed MG, the college’s sports surface manager and lecturer in Greenspace & Creative Studies, whose current responsibilities at the college is to teach the students and oversee the maintenance of the sports pitches and their unique nine-hole golf complex.

He told me the opportunity to invest in new equipment came about from the need to upgrade the existing equipment following a change in how they manage the golf complex. Previously it was a commercially run activity, but it has now been brought back in-house. With over 250 members, the course is open seven days a week, with David overseeing the management of the course with three dedicated staff members. There is also opportunity for many of the current students who are studying sports turf at the college, to gain practical experience on the course. There can be as many of twelve students each week that can be available to help. 

Golf course greens team. L-R :Matthew Wynn, Ashley Jenkinson, Andy Smith, David Leach  

 
David’s team of staff and students maintain the nine-hole golf course, three practice greens, seven football pitches, two rugby and other adjacent turf areas around the college. This new machinery will enable the college to improve the presentation and efficiency in maintaining these sports facilities at the college.

Jack Fielding from GGM handing over the machinery to the college 

Jack Feilding, area sales manager, Lancashire told me that GGM have supplied the college with arrange of Baroness mowers that includes a LM315 greens mower, LM331 surrounds mower, LM2400 fairway mower, GM2810 deck, Kubota ZD1211 zero turn style mower, a Kubota LX351 compact tractor and a GKB SP230 spreader.

To back this up GGM will be organising a number of training days and will be on hand to ensure the college is supported with its aftercare package that offers including servicing and repairs.