Photo Credit: Martin Moss Natural England
Manchester’s Mayfield Park has received a prestigious Green Flag Award with judges declaring they had “never seen such an outstanding urban park in 20+ years of judging”.
It’s the first Green Flag Award for the city-centre park, and its eighth industry award since it opened in September 2022.
Mayfield Park was the city’s first new park in 100 years and the award acknowledges its exceptional design and management. Currently covering 6.5acres, the park will eventually double in size as part of a whole new city district over the coming years.
Since opening, Mayfield Park has been celebrated as ‘an inspiring benchmark for the park of the future’ by respected horticulturist Nigel Dunnett and applauded for challenging the perception of what a modern urban park can be. Among the eight national and international awards it has received this year are accolades for excellence in landscape design, place regeneration and the natural environment.
Established in the UK over 25 years ago by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, the coverted Green Flag Award, celebrates the achievements of parks and green spaces in 17 countries across the world including Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.
On announcing the Award, the Green Flag Award judges said:“In our 20+ years of judging we have never seen such an outstanding urban park. The original design and specification standards are exceptional, the facilities are of the highest standard and the site security and cleansing is excellent.
“The play facilities are inspired and exciting, the horticultural and arboricultural standards are brilliant, and the biodiversity of the site is cared-for and blooming. It was a real pleasure and privilege to be the first to judge this world-class park.”
Mayfield Park was developed from an area left derelict for more than 50 years, which has now been transformed into a biodiverse landscape home to a mix of water and wetlands, 140 trees, tens of thousands of bulbs, plants, wildflowers and shrubs, play areas and rain gardens.
The park is an example of how privately-owned public spaces can operate. Designed by Studio Egret West, it was made possible by a public-private partnership between Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester, LCR and the developer Landsec-U+I.
Laura Percy, Senior Development Director at Landsec U+I on behalf of the Mayfield Partnership, said: “We’re thrilled to win this prestigious award for Mayfield Park. This is recognition to all those who helped to create and deliver this incredible green space and to the management team who ensure every day that it is a vibrant, welcoming and safe space for everyone to enjoy.
“It’s a joy to come to work every day here and see kids playing and people from across the region coming to visit. Providing access to quality green space for the people of Manchester, irrespective of where they live, is at the core of our vision for the transformation of Mayfield, and it will be the reason thousands of people will choose to live and work here in the future.
“Urban parks like ours bring huge value to our neighbourhoods both in terms of their economic value in developing and transforming our cities, and the social and environmental value they can bring to people and the planet. We are so proud to have integrated nature and ecology back into Manchester city-centre and we hope to be flying the Green Flag over Mayfield Park for many years to come.”
