Fly the flag for your favourite park

There is just one week left to vote for the nation’s favourite green space, in the 2013 People’s Choice Green Flag Awards.

Votes can be cast at www.greenflagaward.org for one of the borough’s eight green flag sites which include four parks, three gardens and also a cemetery:

Rochdale
Broadfield Park, Rochdale Memorial Gardens, Packer Spout Gardens

Heywood
Queen’s Park (which won the People’s Choice award in 2010)

Middleton
Truffet Park in Langley and Boarshaw Cemetery

Pennines
Hare Hill Park in Littleborough and Milnrow Memorial Gardens

Voting closes at midday on Tuesday 1 October and the winner will be announced on 9 October.

Councillor Jacqui Beswick, Cabinet Member for Place and Regulation at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Please take a minute to vote for your favourite green space. It is an opportunity to highlight the great work of our rangers and the many volunteers in the borough’s friends groups who give up so much of their time to create these beautiful open spaces for everyone to enjoy.”

Anyone who would like to help improve the borough’s parks can do so by becoming a Green Volunteer or joining a local Friends Group. Alternatively, businesses can sponsor our Green Flag sites. For more information please contact Ian Trickett on 01706 922 073 or email him at ian.trickett@rochdale.gov.uk.

For more details and events taking place in Rochdale borough parks go to www.rochdale.gov.uk/parks

The Green Flag scheme was introduced in 1996 by Keep Britain Tidy and was inspired by the Blue Flag scheme for clean beaches. Awards are given every year to parks and green spaces that are welcoming, safe and well-maintained with strong community involvement and regard for conservation, sustainability and heritage.

All Green Flag Award-winning parks and green spaces are entered into the annual People's Choice Award vote, which last year saw thousands of votes recorded and resulted in the crowning of Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets as the People's Choice.

For information on all Green Flag winning parks please visit: www.keepbritaintidy.org/greenflag