Four Hastings parks awarded international Green Flag recognition

Flaxmere Park, as well as Cornwall Park, Havelock North Village Green and Te Mata Park, retained their Green Flag status for a second year in a row. Photo / Warren Buckland

Four parks in the Hastings District have again been awarded international Green Flag status.

Flaxmere Park, Cornwall Park, Havelock North Village Green and Te Mata Park all retained their Green Flag status for a second year in a row.

The awards are the international mark of a quality park or green space, judged by volunteers across 27 criteria including horticultural standards, cleanliness, safety, sustainability, community involvement and providing a warm welcome.

A new set of Green flags will be raised at the Hastings parks in celebration of the awards before Christmas.

Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the international award is down to the hard work by park workers and community volunteers.

"I'm very proud of our communities for their strong input into our parks, our staff who are so passionate about looking after our parks and our councillors who recognise the value of parks to our communities and put in the resources required to achieve this level of quality," she said.

Te Mata Park, owned and managed by the Te Mata Park Trust, also retained its Green Flag status. Photo / Warren Buckland

The Hastings parks are among 24 open spaces across New Zealand to be awarded the flags..

The parks are judged each year to ensure the spaces are being consistently improved and meeting the needs of their communities.

Recreation Aotearoa does the judging in New Zealand.

Its parks and open spaces manager Annette Richards said the awards set a benchmark.

"It's about embarking on a continuous journey of improvement with all the people who work together to provide quality Green spaces for our locals and our visitors to enjoy," she said.

The announcement also follows Flaxmere winning New Zealand's Most Active Park of the Year 2020 and Hastings winning the Supreme Award in this year's Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards.