Park wins national seal of excellence

Friends and supporters of Queen’s Park: Haley Entwistle, Paul Pratt, Mike Tice, Emily Foster, Malcolm Gilles, Peter Rush, Yvonne Mills, Andy Dobson and Sheila Hill

Heywood’s popular Queen’s Park is celebrating after it unveiled its new Green Flag.

Members of the Friends of Queen’s Park gathered in the historic park to raise the flag, a national mark of excellence.

The park boasts a number of heritage features as well as an outdoor activity gym, popular café, heron colony on the lake and nearby routes into the wider Roch Valley.

It was also at the heart of the Heywood’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, with a teddy bears’ picnic and family fun day drawing hundreds of locals before the historic beacon was lit.

Councillor Martin Burke, Cabinet Member for Environmental and Operational Services at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “This park was given to the people of Heywood by Queen Victoria and they have proved to be excellent custodians.

“The friends group is incredibly committed to the park and they play a vital role in ensuring that we retain these marks of excellence year after year.”

The awards are given to parks which reach the gold standard in a number of areas including management, facilities and community involvement. Queen’s Park is one of eight in the borough, all of which retained the gold standard.