Celebrating Green Flag success! 🎉

Green Flag Award is the internationally recognised standard for parks and green spaces and is celebrating its 30^th year this year.

We are delighted to announce that, following our latest judges' visit in spring time, we have been awarded our Green Flag Award for 2026/27 - our third successful year in a row!

What is Green Flag Award?

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under contract from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, 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 judges are usually managers of other country parks or urban green spaces, so they are experts in how spaces such as Whitlingham Country Park are managed, and they understand the seasonal challenges we face at our site.

Who can enter?

Any green space that is freely accessible to the public is eligible to enter for a Green Flag Award.  Awards are given on an annual basis and winners must apply each year to renew their Green Flag Award status. 

Whitlingham Country Park is one of a record breaking 2,391 green spaces in the UK to achieve the award this year.

This is a fantastic testament to the hard work, passion and dedication of the small team of staff and wider team of volunteers who care for this green space, ensuring it is maintained to a high standard for visitors and residents to enjoy.

As an independent, charity-run park, we are extremely proud of this fantastic result. Whitlingham is one of just a handful of independent parks to gain this accolade out of almost 200 winners in the East of England alone. The vast majority of winners are council managed green spaces, backed by much larger budgets and much bigger teams of staff to manage them collectively.

Why is it important to celebrate great parks?

Paul Todd MBE, Green Flag Award Manager at Keep Britain Tidy, said:

Parks are essential public spaces that support our wellbeing, our communities and our economy. Yet for millions of people, particularly in the most deprived areas, local parks simply don’t feel safe or welcoming. With public services under pressure, investing in parks is not a luxury, it’s a practical, preventative solution and one of the most visible ways to improve people’s quality of life.

Whitlingham Country Park have shown what can be achieved when parks are properly supported and managed. As we celebrate 30 years of the Green Flag Award, we want every community to have access to green spaces like this that are safe, welcoming and maintained to a high standard. Congratulations to everyone involved.

A new flag to fly

This brand new flag will soon be swapped with last year's one, which is currently flying on our flag pole by the Flint Barn Cafe.

More about Green Flag Award

The Green Flag Award Scheme is run by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.

Keep Britain Tidy is a leading environmental charity. They set the standard for the management of parks and beaches, inspire people to be litter-free, to waste less and live more sustainably. They run campaigns and programmes including the Great British Spring Clean, Eco-Schools, Love Parks Week (24^th July – 2^nd August 2026), Buy Nothing New Month, Eco-Schools, the Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces, the Blue Flag/ Seaside Awards for beaches and blue spaces, and the Green Key for sustainable tourism and hospitality.

What do you think?

We hope you agree that Whitlingham Country Park is a wonderful place to be! Please do share your experience with us on Google Reviews, or scan the QR code park reviews plaque which will be inside our soon-to-launch visitor welcome centre in Flint Barn Car Park. Cafe-based reviews can be left via the QR code plaques in the barn for their own review sites which are separate to the park's ones. The plaques look like this:

Your support and feedback help us to be the best we can be for our visitors, so thank you for your kind input!