Louth County Council celebrates success in An Taisce Green Flag awards

The 2023 Green Flag Awards were announced last week by An Taisce Environmental Education, recognizing Ireland’s best managed public parks and green spaces, with Louth County Council celebrating its seventh successive annual win, as four parks in Louth receive Green Flags.

The Green Flag Award is the international quality benchmark for the public green space sector. The scheme is now operating in 17 countries around the world and has been running for over 25 years. Louth County Council has been participating in the scheme since 2016.

The parks in Louth that secured Green Flag Awards are: Blackrock Community Park; Ice House Hill Park; St Helena Park; and Saint Dominic’s Park.

Four of County Louth’s largest public parks, the local authority says they are proudly managed and maintained by the Placemaking and Physical Development Directorate at Louth County Council.

A Green Flag Community Award was also secured by Dromiskin Heritage Park which is managed by Dromiskin Tidy Towns.
The Green Flag Community Award brings the award to community initiatives such as Community Gardens, Community Parks, and Tidy Towns Projects.

By acknowledging the work done by local groups this Community Award helps empower community groups to improve their local area and environment.

The Green Flag scheme uses eight different key criteria to assess participating parks, with an emphasis on environmental management, health and safety, presentation, etc.

Management plans for each park have been put in place and these are assessed by a network of competent judges, who also conduct an annual inspection of each park.

Louth County Council Chief Executive, Joan Martin welcomed the awarding of Green Flag status, saying: “The Green Flag awards, which Louth County Council have proudly retained once again this year, represent the dedication and commitment not only of our staff to maintaining Louth’s beautiful outdoor spaces, but also of individuals and local community groups, and the collaborative work that is done every day to ensure public parks across the county are welcoming, safe spaces for everyone to enjoy.”

The Green Flag Award scheme aims to encourage the provision of good quality public parks and green spaces that are managed in environmentally sustainable ways and achieve high environmental performance.

The Place making and Physical Development Directorate at Louth County Council thanked volunteers, in particular Blackrock Park Committee, local community groups, the Council Management Team and staff who have “worked tirelessly” to achieve Green Flag status for another year.