The Green Flag Award Winners of 2020

If the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s how much we value our local parks and greenspaces.

All year round, hundreds of unsung heroes – dedicated park staff and volunteers - look after these treasured spaces and today we are celebrating this year’s Green Flag Award-winning parks and green spaces and saying a massive ‘thank you’ to those who work tirelessly to give us some fantastic places to escape to.

The announcement of award winners, normally made in July, has been delayed this year due to Covid-19 but the work that is done to ensure the parks are safe havens for us to visit continued all summer – with additional challenges that went along with huge numbers of visitors.

This year, a total of 2061 places have achieved the Green Flag Award, with 77 of these being in Scotland.  They have all been assessed by volunteer judges. Among the new winners in Scotland this year are Saughton Park in Edinburgh, Riverside Nature Park in Dundee, and Hermitage Park in Helensburgh.

Barry Fisher, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “We’d like to applaud those volunteers and park employees who this year have gone above and beyond to ensure that the green and blue spaces, that we have come to rely on for our health and wellbeing during this pandemic, have been up to standard.  We have always recognised the importance of good quality, well managed space, but this year it is has been crystallised as we have sought out local places to exercise in, to spend time with families, and to meet friends in a socially distant way! We are delighted that this year we are able to recognise 77 parks with the Green Flag Award despite the challenges that have been faced.”

A full list of Green Flag Award-winning parks and green spaces is available here.

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by us in Scotland and environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of recreational outdoor spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.