Paddington Recreation Ground retains impressive accolades from two annual green space and horticultural awards: London in Bloom and the Green Flag Award.
The grounds, which are managed by leisure contractor Everyone Active, retained Green Flag status for another year and were awarded a gold award in the London in Bloom competition for the 7th consecutive year after a mystery site visit.
The awards are an excellent achievement for the whole team who work hard to keep Paddington Recreation Ground at its best for everyone to enjoy. Stephen Scott, Landscape and Security Manager said, “It’s been a very difficult year for the team and everyone involved at Paddington Recreation Ground but everyone has worked extremely hard to achieve this incredible result.”
When asked about the London in Bloom award, Stephen Scott said that feedback from judge Mark Wasileweski MVO was promising, adding that on the first day of judging he was “concerned at first … as Mark informed me he’s usually sent in to make sure parks and gardens are at the standardof the awards they won previously. I’m glad we met those standards and retained our gold award.”
Cllr Mark Shearer, Deputy Cabinet Member for City Management said: “Westminster City Council are thrilled to once again retain both its Green Flag Award status following a mystery visit, AND the London in Bloom Gold award for Paddington Recreation Ground. We saw during the pandemic just how vital our parks and open spaces are to the physical and mental health of our community, and we’re delighted that they’ve been independently judged as being at the highest standard.”
Paddington Recreation Ground is the earliest public athletic ground of its kind in London, located in the Maida Vale area just north of Paddington. In addition to providing visitors and residents access to a variety of sports and recreation facilities the grounds the site was selected as a non-statutory Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) in 1995.
The Green Flag is the benchmark international standard run by Keep Britain Tidy and given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces in order to promote standards of good management and best-practice amongst the green space sector.
The “in Bloom” campaign is the largest horticultural campaign in Britain that allows groups to compete on a regional or national level by using gardening to transform their communities.
