South Hill Park blooms with gold award
1st October 2015 Posted in Council News
One of the jewels in Bracknell Forest’s crown scooped a gold award from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) for its beautiful blooms earlier this month.
South Hill Park won a Gold award in the Parks and Open Spaces category in the Thames and Chilterns in Bloom competition, a regional round of the RHS Britain in Bloom campaign.
Although the category was introduced in 2014, this was the first year Thames and Chilterns in Bloom (covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) judged the category. South Hill Park was one of six entrants, with only Oxford Wolvercote Cemetery also taking gold.
The grounds at South Hill Park, which are managed in partnership between Bracknell Town Council and Bracknell Forest Council, were judged by Ben Stanesby, Gareth Bartle and Paul Almond in July.
Allan Moffat, chair of Bracknell in Bloom and Bracknell Town Council’s recreational facilities manager, said: “The judges felt South Hill Park was a well maintained park featuring a very high quality landscape. They were impressed that the park has such a wide variety of amenities for the public to enjoy, including well managed wildlife areas, a woodland performance space, outdoor sculptures, and the arts centre and café.”
Cllr Iain McCracken, Bracknell Forest Council’s executive member for culture, corporate services and public protection, said: “I’m delighted that the judges from Britian in Bloom were able to see for themselves what a wonderful facility South Hill Park is.
“We’re very lucky to have such a fantastic array of parks and open spaces in the borough and South Hill Park is certainly one of the jewels in our crown. It’s great news that the Royal Horticultural Society agrees with us and officially recognised it as a gold standard park in the Britain in Bloom campaign.”