Get to know... Green Flag Award Judges

The Green Flag Award is assessed almost exclusively by volunteers who spend many hours of their free time reading through green space management plans, meeting staff and volunteers on the ground, and writing detailed reports with recommendations to improve standards for all.

We hosted an online event on 15 March to thank them for all their efforts over the last year and prepare them for the judging season ahead with talks from University of Leeds, Green Action Trust and Scottish Wildlife Trust.

The Green Flag Award is all about sharing best practice and raising the standards of our green spaces so the knowledge and skills our volunteer judges bring to the awards is essential to provide the best service to green space managers and community groups across the country. We spoke to three of our judges for a flavour of where they have come from and how they approach judging.

 

Martin Howorth has served as a Green Flag Award judge for many years across England, Wales and more recently Scotland.

 

• What is your motivation for getting involved in Green Flag Award?

I love visiting parks in all their forms, from formal parks to wild river corridors to parks with a great history or community gardens in a corner of a town. I managed parks for over 30 years and know the background to them, how they are managed and what makes a great park, so it's a pleasure to visit and walk in a park and meet people who care for them.  

 

• What experience do you have that makes you a good judge?

I was a park manager in North Wales for over 30 years starting as a ranger and ended managing parks and other green services. I think my enthusiasm for parks keeps me fresh as a judge, I don't get bored of going to parks and love to see new ideas and new ways of caring for parks.

 

• What is your favourite thing about judging?

Probably meeting people and hearing the experiences both from my fellow judges and from the park users, community reps and park staff.

 

• What is some of the best practice you have seen on visits?

It's hard to say, I think greening a park and making it wilder and more informal, particularly in a very urban setting always impresses me, as it's hard to do without people saying the park is neglected. There is a real skill in doing it well. Figgate Park in Edinburgh is a good example.

 

• What are the common improvements you highlight?

Usually lack of biodiversity in a park. Too many parks are still large areas of short grass, which is poor for wildlife and often not much fun for users. Parks generally need more trees planted. Park Managers can be very traditional in their approach and claim people wouldn't like change without asking them their opinion. Park surveys don't seem to feature very highly on many park managers to do list which is a pity, as park users often have good ideas for change. 

 

• What are the benefits of Green Flag Award?

I think the Green Flag approach is good for maintaining the standard of a park. I don’t think there has been a better way to do this in the UK, over the last 20 years. Its also a national standard which should be applicable across the UK. This is important as it means a green flag park in Wales, Scotland or England should all reach that level. It does rely on the consistency of green flag judges to uphold the standard, but the system has worked up to now, so it seems to be a good model for everyone to feel pride in a local park that is well maintained and cared for.  

 

Iain J Thomson retired from Aberdeenshire Council after 33 years with Landscape Services, managing/working in Parks, Open Spaces, Cemeteries, grounds of authority owned properties such as schools and working with community groups. He has served as a Green Flag Award judge for around nine years.

 

• What is your motivation for getting involved in Green Flag Award?

I have always enjoyed visiting other Horticultural sites/parks and Green Flag judging has given me the opportunity to visit sites and see how others were dealing with similar problems/issues. I think one of the most challenging things with the Green Flag Award process is with the Management Plans which may have been originally written by members of staff who have since retired or moved on and been replaced by people who may not have had much involvement or input previously in the Green Flag process/requirements.

 

• What experience do you have that makes you a good judge?

Not for me to judge if I am a good judge!

In my working life, in addition to my council work, I spent a year at a general nursery, eight years at a rose nursery and was heavily involved in building a private theme park where I became something of an expert in building random stone walls, glass fiber animals/structures and mixing cement!!

 

• What is your favourite thing about judging?

Meeting people – from council officers at local authority sites to members of the public/community groups at community gardens and being able to share the enthusiasm of some of the Friends groups.

 

• What is some of the best practice you have seen on visits?

Some parks have employed relaxed mowing regimes which will enhance biodiversity with some having sown great areas of wildflowers.

 

• What are the common improvements you highlight?

I guess the most common improvements I highlight would be the reviewing and content of the Management Plans. Examples would be: Updating information, such as species counts and including photos; Providing full information regarding Friends groups input; Providing factual information regarding the use of peat, herbicide and pesticide; Ensuring there is a link between front line staff and the MP.

 

• What are the benefits of Green Flag Award?

The Green Flag Award provides a platform for a vast array of sites to be judged on their individual merits, taking account of what benefit it provides to the local and often wider community. It takes into consideration differing management structures, styles and community aspirations and judging should help the site to reach its full potential within these boundaries.

 

 

Ian Talboys is a retired Aberdeen City Council Countryside Officer and has served as a Green Flag Award judge for four years.

 

• What is your motivation for getting involved in Green Flag Award?

A number of my work colleagues had been assessors for Green Flag Award, Its Your Neighbourhood and ‘In Bloom’ and they encouraged me to get involved.  I decided to train as a Green Flag Award assessor as the variety of sites appealed to me and also because at the time the assessments seemed to me to be too focused on horticultural excellence which made it more difficult for more naturally managed sites to achieve the Award.  One of the sites I managed had failed to achieve the Award a few years before and the feedback comments made it clear that managing things in a more natural wildlife friendly regime had counted against our site.  I wanted to see if I could influence things to change this!   

 

• What experience do you have that makes you a good judge?

I have had a career working in or managing local authority countryside sites and nature reserves dating back to the 1980s.  Before that I volunteered at RSPB Nature reserves and was a member and later leader of a Young Ornithologists’ Club in Kent where we had our own small farm-based nature reserve where I had volunteered since I was about 11 years old!  So, I have been in the business for over 50 years, seen many changes and won many national and regional awards for projects I have led or been involved with.  Some of the projects I have been involved with have been international partnerships with other organizations in Europe and Scandinavia and I have had links to projects in other parts of the  UK and North America.  A lot of the projects I have delivered required considerable external funding to achieve them, having no money has never been a reason for not taking on a project!

In retirement I have continued to be involved with countryside management as a volunteer and Trustee for the Ury Riverside Park in Inverurie which is transforming a 61ha former cereal field into an accessible and biodiverse park for people and wildlife to enjoy together.

 

• What is your favourite thing about judging?

My favourite thing about judging is seeing different parks and countryside areas and finding out what other groups do as well as sharing tips and knowledge as appropriate as well as meeting the community groups doing great work for our greenspaces.

 

• What is some of the best practice you have seen on visits?

The partnership with the local college in Ayr providing opportunities for students to get real life experience in restoring historic structures using traditional skills and techniques to secure the future of the walled garden and other structures in Belleisle Park.  Not only was this conserving the heritage of the site but also developing skills for young people getting into paid employment and keeping valuable skills alive.

At the Viewfield Community Orchard in Nairn the community had adopted a small area of a park to develop into a community orchard with a range of local fruit tree and shrub varieties which had all been grown or grafted by local experts.  The development of this site encouraged other community groups to develop similar small orchards in their own communities around Nairn.  The groups all shared their knowledge and experiences to help each other thrive.  These small spaces have become highly valued ‘safe spaces’ for local people, especially during covid lockdowns, to support improved physical and mental health.

 

• What are the common improvements you highlight?

Managing for biodiversity!

 

• What are the benefits of Green Flag Award?

It gives a baseline for park managers to measure what they are achieving and the opportunity to see what other greenspace managers see.  A fresh pair of eyes can spot the excellent or poor practice that might be overlooked if you are seeing the same place all the time.

 

 

For more information on the Green Flag Award and to find out how to apply, information can be found here.