KERRY amenities have been awarded five Green Flags for 2024, by An Taisce.
Tralee Town Park, Childers Park & Woodlands in Listowel and the Tralee Bay Wetlands, as well as the Killarney House & Gardens, managed by the NPWS, and the OPW managed Derrynane Historic Park were among the 120 public greens places recognised in the 2024 awards, which includes parks, gardens, greenways and wildlife sanctuaries around the country today.
The award acknowledges excellence in the management of those green spaces which are freely open to the public. Ireland leads the way for other EU countries in terms of Green Flags awarded.
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Tralee Bay Wetlands Eco & Activity Park, was declared the overall winner of the 2024 Pollinator Plan Award, and Town Park winner, while the Sneem Community Garden was named as the Community Garden Winner in the Pollinator Plan category.
In addition, Derrynane, and Killarney House & Gardens were awarded Green Heritage Site Accreditation, while Sneem Development Co-op were awarded a Green Flag Community Award for their Garden of the Senses.
Mayor of Tralee, Cllr Mikey Sheehy warmly welcomed the awards and paid tribute to the Council staff and everyone who contributed to the success in the Green awards.
”As Mayor of Tralee, I am delighted that both Tralee Town Park and the Tralee Bay Wetlands has been named as Green Flag winners,” he said.
“We are hugely fortunate in having such fantastic open spaces, freely available for the public to use, and these awards not only recognises the hard work that the staff do in ensuring these public spaces are available and accessible, but also reflects Kerry’s natural beauty. The winners throughout the county are to be applauded for their efforts.”
According to An Taisce, the Green Flag Award is the international quality benchmark for the public green space sector – now operating in 19 countries around the world.
Running for over 25 years, the programme uses eight key criteria, with an emphasis on environmental management, for its assessment. All sites implement a management framework, and then undergo an annual inspection conducted by qualified judges. This year participating European countries include Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the UK.