Kings' park - An award winning park

Address: Chancery Lane, Retford, Nottinghamshire, DN22 6DF.

Opening Times: Kings Park is open to the public every day, 365 days a year.

An Award Winning Park

The Green Flag Award

Councillor Darrell Pulk with Bassetlaw District Council parks and open spaces staff, holding the Green Flag for Kings' Park (Retford) 2023/24

Since 2008 the Park has proudly achieved the prestigious Green Flag Award. 

The Green Flag Award scheme is managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.

The award is reassessed on an annual basis to ensure it maintains its status as one of the best parks to visit.

In addition Kings Park also continues to receive wider recognition and awards both locally and nationally for the high levels of standards and visitor experience it offers to all.

The Park was a recent winner of the North Notts Business Awards for Best Tourist Attraction in 2022. Other awards have also included: UK’s Best Park 2019 East Midlands Winner.

Kings Park was crowned the Regional Winner of the UK’s Best Park 2019.  A total of 17 local parks and green spaces were nominated and then championed by park users, communities, Friends of groups, landowners and elected representatives as part of the public vote.

The park first received this national recognition award in 2007 when once again it was chosen as regional winner.

In the People's Choice Award for 2013 (organised by The Keep Britain Tidy Charity), Kings Park was voted Britain's 5th Favourite Green Space/Park. In achieving this status our premier green space beat off extremely stiff competition within a group of 1,448 elite Green Flag Site Winners. 

Green Flag's Special Award for Innovation 2017

Each year Green Flag celebrate the very best innovations across Green Flag-awarded sites with their Special Innovation Award.

The Council used Local Democracy Week to consult with local schools within Retford.  The school children were presented with three different concepts on the splash park design and through the process of voting were able to choose which type of facility they would like. 

This gave the children a valuable opportunity to discover and learn more about democracy within society, how to conduct a ballot to vote and how to decide upon a preferred design based on a majority vote.

The park's new Water Splash Park is now in place and has proved to be a huge success, meeting the expectations and needs of the local community along with the many visitors it attracts to the park. 

Plus the installation has given local children an opportunity to have their say and learn more about democracy and how it works within society by conducting their own ballot. And provided the Council with a different way forward on the decision-making process for similar projects in the future.

 

 


Last Updated on Thursday, July 18, 2024