Green Flag Win for Holt Country Park - Again

NNDC Cabinet Member for the Environment,
Virginia Gay, and Holt Town Council
Chairman Philip High, with the Green Flag

Holt Country Park has won a coveted Green Flag for the second year running, in recognition of its importance to the North Norfolk community as a place for recreation and education, and of the improvements that have been made there in the last year.

The Park, which is owned and managed by North Norfolk District Council, is the only place in Norfolk to have won a Green Flag. It first won the award in 2005/06.

The Green Flag is given to parks and open spaces that are clean, safe and well-managed according to principles of sustainability, with an eye to conservation, and with the involvement of the community. In order to retain the award, winners need to be able to show year on year improvement.

The most obvious improvement at the park this year has been the installation of an open-air 'teaching barn' near the visitors' centre thanks to Holt Town Council, which won a £5000 grant from the Awards for All fund, which distributes Lottery money for community projects. Improvements have also been made to the play area, and this year there is a better-than-ever programme of family events.

The 'teaching barn' is an open-sided, roofed structure which offers space for school groups to study, and can just as easily shelter visitors from the sun and rain, or become a dry and shaded picnic area.

Holt Town Council's support for the park is the kind of community involvement that Green Flag winners must demonstrate. The Town Council has also been involved with other projects at the park, as in October last year when it helped to organise the planting of 27 English oak trees as part of the Trafalgar bicentennial celebrations.

North Norfolk District Councillor Virginia Gay, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: "We're all very proud of our Green Flag for Holt Country Park. We're especially pleased that it's the only Green Flag in Norfolk. It shows that North Norfolk District Council is serious about protecting its natural environment. It's good to have the Council's work acknowledged by this distinction."

For more information:

• visit www.greenflagaward.org.uk
• call Paul Ingham, NNDC's Countryside and Parks Manager, on 01263 516001
• call Di Dann, Clerk to Holt Town Council, on 01263 712149, Mon/Wed/Fri 9am to 12 noon.

ENDS