A number of parks and green spaces across Lancaster and Morecambe have received a coveted Green Flag Award for 2026.
Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy today revealed the winners, with successful submissions from across the area for a range of local green spaces.
Lancaster Canal, operated by the Canal and River Trust, and Happy Mount Park, Regent Park, Ryelands Park, Torrisholme Cemetery and Williamson Park, all operated by Lancaster City Council, and Lancaster University, have been given a Green Flag Award.
The Green Flag Award is the benchmark international quality classification for parks and green spaces, providing the high standards against which sites are measured, and which land managers, local authorities and volunteers pledge to achieve when applying for the award.
The scheme was launched 30 years ago, with the first awards given a year later, to recognise and reward the best green spaces in the country.
Below: Lancaster Canal
In total, 292 parks and green spaces in the North West have reached the high standards required to receive a coveted Green Flag Award.
But the announcement comes as research by the charity reveals shocking levels of inequality of access to safe, well maintained green spaces, despite the proven benefits of parks and nature to people's wellbeing and quality of life.
A YouGov survey of more than 2,000 UK adults found stark differences in the quality and safety of local green spaces between the richest and poorest areas in the country, with just 27% of people in the most deprived areas nationally describing their local park as ‘safe’, compared to 46% in the least deprived areas.
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.
“In an age of rising concern about community cohesion, young people’s wellbeing and time spent online, safe local parks are becoming more important than ever. Yet the communities who need them the most are sadly the least likely to have them.
“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 councils can improve people’s quality of life.
“Every pound invested in a park, particularly in a deprived community, delivers real returns - improving wellbeing, bringing communities together, reducing loneliness, giving people somewhere safe and free to spend time and, ultimately, reducing pressure on public services like the NHS.
Below: Happy Mount Park
“Today’s Green Flag Award winners show 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 that are safe, welcoming and maintained to the highest standards.”
The Green Flag Award scheme is managed by Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, setting the benchmark standard for the management of recreational outdoor spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.
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