Croydon has been awarded two more Green Flags, bringing the borough’s total to six.
Haling Grove and Coombe Wood have received the award for the first time. They join Wettern Tree Garden, Coulsdon Memorial Ground, Happy Valley and Wandle Park among the best-managed parks and green spaces in the country.
This is excellent news and another sign of the progress we are making to restore pride in Croydon.
When Labour ran the Council, Croydon lost every Green Flag it once held. By the time residents elected me as Mayor in 2022, our borough did not have a single one.
That was a sad reflection of how far standards had been allowed to fall. Our parks are at the heart of local communities, but they need consistent care, proper management and an administration that recognises their value.
We now have six Green Flags. That turnaround has not happened by accident.
We have introduced better grass-cutting schedules, invested in new and improved playgrounds and outdoor gyms, created new paths and worked to make our parks more accessible. We have also set an ambition to secure more Green Flags across the borough, giving residents confidence that their local green spaces are being maintained to a nationally recognised standard.
My sincere thanks go to Croydon’s Friends of Parks groups, volunteers, Council officers and partners. Their commitment, knowledge and hard work make an enormous difference throughout the year. These awards belong to them as much as anyone.
Green Flags are awarded by Keep Britain Tidy and are regarded as the national benchmark for well-managed parks. Securing six of them is a considerable achievement, particularly when we remember that Croydon had none just a few years ago.
However, we are not going to pretend that the job is finished. Croydon has many more wonderful parks and open spaces, and residents rightly expect them all to be clean, welcoming and well cared for.
We have done a great deal, but there is much more to do to repair the damage we inherited and restore Croydon. We will keep investing where we can, raising standards and working with local communities to secure more Green Flags in the years ahead.
If you have not visited one of Croydon’s six Green Flag parks recently, I hope you will find time to enjoy it this summer.
