Country Park rangers are 'the best of the best'
Council Rangers based at Wirral Country Park have been recognised as the ‘Best of the Best’ by the people behind the prestigious Green Flag awards.
They were named ‘Team of the Year’ in the annual Best of the Best Awards organised by the national environmental charity, Keep Britain Tidy.
The awards celebrate the volunteers, park staff and groups behind the success of parks that managed to scoop a sought-after Green Flag Award earlier in the year.
The Rangers are responsible for managing very different habitats at Wirral Country Park, Heswall Dales and Hilbre Islands - areas that include protected grasslands and cliffs, freshwater ponds and ancient woodland, sandy beaches and rocky foreshore and one of the most important heathlands in the North West.
In their summary announcing the success, the Green Flag judges concluded that ‘working together as a team, the uniformed Rangers - exemplary in their face to face contact with Wirral residents and visitors to the borough - are often the first point of contact and need to be able to respond to everything that can occur.
‘This could be dealing with enquiries, complaints, administering first aid and calling for Emergency Services, undertaking unscheduled management from the clearance of fallen trees to filling potholes and erecting signs and fences. All that takes place alongside the daily routine patrols, toilet cleaning, delivering school and other group visits, working with and supervising friends and other volunteer groups, writing and implementing site management and action plans, ensuring compliance with site safety audits and risk assessments.
‘As frontline staff, the Rangers can sometimes be subject to abuse and threatening and challenging behaviour and other anti-social activities. Being able to deal with these incidents is only possible with the support of colleagues and by working together as a team.’
We are so lucky in Wirral to have such expertise and dedication within our Parks and Countryside teams. They go above and beyond to protect, preserve and keep our most beautiful and environmentally-significant places open and accessible for residents and visitors. I congratulate the team at Wirral Country Park for this special national recognition, I know it is very well deserved.
The Green Flag Award scheme recognises and accredits high quality and well managed green spaces and is managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy in partnership with Keep Wales Tidy, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful.
Nominations were received from across the UK and the Wirral Country Park-based Rangers were subsequently selected by the Best of The Best jury for their exceptional contribution.
Parks provide a wide array of benefits to people, pets and wildlife including space to exercise, socialise, and improve mental and physical wellbeing, and areas for nature to thrive.
A record breaking 2,227 parks and green spaces achieved the Green Flag Award - the international quality mark for parks and green spaces – this year, with successful submissions from local authorities and other land managers across the country for a range of sites, from world-famous city parks to small, local green spaces.
The best of best awards is our way of honouring all the hard work done by the thousands of parks staff and volunteers up and down the country who work tirelessly to make their parks and green spaces fantastic places that everyone can enjoy.
Our Best of the Best winners represent some of the UK’s hardest working individuals and groups working within our highest quality parks.
We believe everyone, wherever they live, should be able to access and enjoy safe, high-quality green space, so achieving this recognition from the public is testament to the Wirral Country Park-based Rangers tireless work.
We want to say a huge congratulations to them.
