Waterford City and County Council has attained Green Flag Award status for two outstanding amenities in the county.
They say that Kilbarry Nature Park and the Waterford Greenway are the worthy and fitting winners of the An Taisce Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces. The announcement was made today (Thursday 17th September 2020) by An Taisce. The Green Flag Award scheme is an international mark of quality which recognises the efforts of local community engagement with green space involvement.
The Mayor of the City and County of Waterford, Cllr Damien Geoghegan, today said:
“As a new entrant to the Green Flag Award scheme, Waterford is honoured to be awarded green flag status for two of our flagship sites. I want to commend the work of the environment and roads sections for their impeccable attention to detail in their maintenance of these, and indeed, all of our stunning amenities in Waterford.
"We are fortunate here in Waterford to have these beautiful places on our doorstep and the work of Waterford Council staff is to be applauded”.
Waterford Greenway has already seen success and since opening in 2017 attained awards such as including the Independent.ie Reader Travel Award in 2019 for ‘Ireland’s Favourite Adventure’, the 2018 LAMA All Ireland Community and Council Award for ‘Best Tourism Initiative, and Grand Prix winner’. They attracted over 284,000 visitors in 2019 and was a finalist in The Irish Tourism Industry Awards under ‘Best Ireland’s Ancient East Tourism Experience (Large)’.
Kilbarry Nature Park was the second recipient. The integrated wetland , wildflower meadows in Kilbarry Bog displays the native flora and fauna. A former municipal landfill site, the area has been re-mediated to create a popular space for the community. The Kilbarry Nature Park is also the first remediated landfill to win this prestigious award.
Kilbarry Nature Park has received two Green Flag awards, those being:
· Green Flag for Parks – awarded by An Taisce Environment Education Unit.
· Green Flag for Parks Pollinator Awards 2020 - 'Highly commended' Special Award 2020. Pollinator Award jointly run with National Biodiversity Data Centre and An Taisce Environmental Education to support the All Ireland Pollinator Plan.
Eoin Dullea, of Waterford City and County Council’s Environment Department coordinated the Green Flag application process, while staff of both Parks & Open Spaces and Amenities are tasked with the everyday care and maintenance of Kilbarry Nature Park, thus ensuring the park is managed to high standards. Graham Fallon, student of Horticulture from Waterford Institute of Technology, has also been hugely influential in compiling the necessary items for the application documents which resulted in these awards.
Green Flag for Parks is part of the Horticultural college programme and this has been a firsthand experience for Graham in the benefits of the Green Flag for Parks. WCCC has a close relationship with both WIT and Kildalton Collage and has hosted many horticultural students over the years as part of their work experience programme.
