Hard working parks staff and volunteers who dedicate their time to protecting and enhancing some of the best Green Flag Award winning spaces in the UK have been officially recognised in the 2025 Best of the Best Awards.
It comes after a record breaking 2,250 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 the Best Awards recognise the unsung heroes behind the success of these beautiful green spaces, with a jury making the tough decision of who meets the criteria for each category.
This year’s winners have been announced as:
- Best Love Parks Week Event – Weymouth Town Council
- Best Initiative to Increase Usage by Women and Girls – Forster Memorial Park (Friends of Forster Memorial Park and Lewisham Council) for creating a safe and welcoming space for girls
- Best Health Initiative – joint winners
- Corby Growing project – Coronation Park (North Northamptonshire Council)
- Growing Together Basildon – Growing together Basildon (Trustlinks)
- Young Volunteer of the Year – Ethan Dando - LCDP Llanharan Community Development Project
- Best Biodiversity / Habitat Creation Project - Gnollywood and Meadow – Gnoll Country Park (Neath Port Talbot Council)
- Best Promotion of Heritage Value - Aden Restoration and Redevelopment, Aden Country Park (Aberdeenshire Council)
- Volunteer of the Year – Joanne Cheek, Bedgrove Park (Buckinghamshire Council)
- Volunteer Team of the Year – joint winners
- Friends of St Peters Berkhamsted, Rectory Lane Cemetery
- Friends of Antrim Castle Gardens, Clotworthy Courtyard at Antrim Castle Gardens
- Team of the Year – Park Staff – Hyndburn Parks Team
- Employee of the Year – Garry Wilson, Falkirk Council
Commenting on the results, Green Flag Award Manager Paul Todd MBE said: “Parks and green spaces provide crucial benefits to people, pets and wildlife, including space to exercise, socialise, and improve mental and physical wellbeing - and they continue to play a part in helping us mitigate and adapt to some of the effects of our changing climate.
“We know that our Green Flag Award winning sites would not have achieved these high standards without the hard work of staff, volunteers and other groups around the UK who look after them.
"It’s only right that we continue to recognise the tireless work by the thousands of parks staff and volunteers to make their parks and green spaces safe and healthy places everyone can benefit from. We’d like to congratulate all of our worthy Best of the Best winners on their achievements.”
