St Albans has scooped the Environmental Quality Award and a Gold Award in the City category at the Anglia in Bloom Awards 2012.
This is the second year in a row that St Albans City and District Council has entered and won awards in the regional horticultural and environmental competition.
The awards are aimed at encouraging communities to demonstrate how they can make a difference to their surroundings.
In recent years, the Council and its grounds maintenance contractors have been moving towards more sustainable and environmentally-friendly methods of maintaining the District’s parks and green spaces.
This has entailed introducing an annual seeding programme to grow flowers in parks across the District. These flowers have replaced bedding plants which are less sustainable as they are grown in peat and require transporting and intensive watering.
Councillor Beric Read, Portfolio Holder for Community Engagement and Localism for the Council, said: “The Council took a decision at the beginning of the year when there was a drought to use annual seeding to grow flowers in parts of the parks. Flowers that are grown in this way require less water than bedding plants and also help create a natural environment that attracts butterflies and bees. We are now looking at using this horticultural technique in more green places across the District.”
In addition, the Council has made a decision to grow Yellow Rattle in Verulamium Park to help generate a flower meadow. It is a parasitic plant that can help restrict grass growth allowing wildflowers to establish more easily.
Cattle grazing is also being re-introduced to Bricket Wood Common to help produce the right conditions for the spread of heathland plants.
Councillor contact:
Councillor Beric Read, Head of Community Engagement and Localism for St Albans City and District Council
Mob: 07956 220264
Contact for the media:
Amanda Wilkinson,
Media and Internal Communications Officer
St Albans City and District Council
Tel: 01727 819317
E-mail: amanda.wilkinson@stalbans.gov.uk
www.stalbans.gov.uk
Notes:
Picture captions:
At Anglia in Bloom Awards (above, left to right): Sharon Scott, Allotments & St Albans in Bloom Officer at St Albans City and District Council; Jon Green, Green Spaces Manager at the Council and Cllr Beric Read, Portfolio Holder for Community Engagement and Localism for the Council.
An example of annual seeding in Clarence Park