4.1.6 Quality of Parks

Quality varies across the provision of parks in the City. The introduction of methods to assess quality of open spaces has occurred in recent times and, while a full city wide assessment of parks is not currently available, it can be seen that there are parks of concern, particularly in the South Central and North West management areas.

Green Flag Awards Scheme

This scheme was introduced in the UK over 20 years ago as a reaction to concerns over declining park quality there in the 1970s and 1980s.It is considered that the introduction in the UK of quality assessment has improved the overall quality of its parks as it creates a standard to be achieved. Currently over 1,600 parks have succeeded in obtaining this quality standard there.

The process involves an application that is assessed by trained judges with regard to specific criteria. Those successful are awarded a green flag for display.

An Taisce (The National Trust for Ireland) administer the scheme in Ireland. The Dublin local authorities and Office of Public Works have now introduced the scheme into a selected number of parks over the last four years.

In the City Council five parks were selected, one for each management area:

  • South East Area: Bushy Park
  • South Central Area: Markievicz Park
  • Central Area: Blessington Street Park
  • North West Area: Poppintree Park
  • South Central Area: St Anne’s Park

Policy

Park Services will continue to work towards improving the quality of its parks to ensure all citizens have access to a quality park in their neighbourhood and will deploy the Green Flag award scheme to assist in achieving a recognised quality standard.

Actions

  • To carry out selected Green Flag assessments annually for each of the Council administrative areas.
  • To carry out a full assessment of all Flagship and Community Grade 1 Parks, subject to resource availability, within the next five years.
  • To upgrade specific Community Grade 2 parks to Grade 1 parks in management areas with a higher proportion of Grade 2 parks, as follows:
  1. North West Area: Kildonan Park
  2. South Central Area: Ballyfermot Civic
  3. Centre Park & Cherry Orchard Park

Green Flag Award

Assessment Criteria:

1.

A welcoming place

2.

Healthy, safe and secure

3.

Well maintained and clean

4.

Sustainability

5.

Conservation and heritage

6.

Community involvement

7.

Marketing

8.

Management