A mystery shopper’s report has revealed why Bolton’s Queen Park was awarded Green Flag status for the fourth year running.
In July, the park was revealed as one of 1,970 UK parks and green spaces to have received a prestigious Green Flag Award, the mark of a quality park or green space.
This international award is given after judges from Keep Britain Tidy ‘mystery shop’ the green space - they drop in unannounced to see how standards are being maintained.
Queen’s Park, which is looked after by Bolton Council, scored top marks in all seven categories, which include ‘landscape and heritage’, ‘welcoming’ and ‘well maintained and clean’.
Experts said the park was “very welcoming”, “very tidy” and “very well maintained”. They found that the standard of horticulture was very high and highlighted the sunken formal garden as “outstanding”.
Staff and users “were friendly” and “play equipment is excellent”. The park was also praised for its “attractive entrances” and “good directional finger posts through the site”.
Judges were impressed by how accessible the site was for everyone and praised the path network for being “in excellent condition”.
Executive Cabinet Member for Environmental Services Delivery, Cllr Adele Warren, said: “This is a wonderful report and testament to the hard work of our teams who maintain our beautiful park.
“Parks are the green lungs of our town and they have such a positive impact on everyone’s health and wellbeing.
“We are investing £1.5 million to make the town greener and look cleaner, and some of that funding has already been spent on new mowers.
“We will also be installing some new benches which will enable more residents with mobility issues to access our green spaces and putting more bins in parks, across the borough, to help keep our parks clean.”