Edinburgh's parks and gardens scoop 20 Green Flag awards

RECORD numbers of parks and gardens in Scotland have been applauded for their environmental excellence, with the capital's beauty spots leading the way.

Edinburgh claimed 20 of the 34 "green flag" plaudits, with seven sites, including Princes Street Gardens, honoured for the first time.

Other sites around the country to have now met the strict national standard for green spaces include Glasgow's Botanic Gardens, Glasgow Green, Rouken Glen in Renfrewshire and MacRosty Park in Crieff.

They are now entitled to claim they are among the best-quality parks anywhere in the UK.

The parks have all had to meet a string of strict criteria including cleanliness, appearing welcoming, providing a safe and secure environment and having good management in place.

Some 1,288 UK parks have received a Green Flag Award from a consortium that includes Keep Britain Tidy, although the scheme has only been running in Scotland for the past four years.

Other Scottish beauty spots which have retained the Green Flag include Aden Country Park in Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire, Baxter Park in Dundee, and Roslin Glen in Midlothian.

Any green space is eligible for the award as long as it is free of charge to the public.

A spokeswoman for the Green Flag Award Scheme said: "The award programme provides a high level of quality against which our parks and green spaces are measured.

"It is also seen as a way of encouraging others to achieve high environmental standards, setting a benchmark of excellence in recreational green areas."

In Edinburgh - where new sites honoured include Morningside Park, Victoria Park and St Margaret's Park - council chiefs claimed they were setting the "benchmark in environmental excellence".

However, the local authority has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with refuse collection staff over the past two years and has run up a 3.5 million bill bringing in private contractors. Bin men mounted a work to rule over changes to pay and conditions, with many parts of the city reporting overflowing bins at the height of the dispute.

Edinburgh was also the only part of Scotland to win a separate "community award" under the Green Flag scheme.

A walled garden on Corstorphine Hill, which is maintained by local people and was featured on the BBC's Beechgrove Garden programme, was converted from scrubland into a community garden in 2003.

Edinburgh's strong showing in the Green Flag Plus Partnership's awards scheme has come just months after it was named one of the cleanest cities in the world, rated alongside the likes of Calgary and Singapore.

Last year, Keep Scotland Beautiful gave the city centre its best-ever rating for the cleanliness of its streets, with an overall score of 72 out of 100.

Robert Aldridge, the city council's environment leader, said: "These awards positively reflect on all the hard work carried out by our staff to make Edinburgh's parks and green spaces so attractive.

"The city is renowned for its beautiful green spaces and I am delighted to see that this has been recognised at a national level."

The latest recipients of the Green Flag awards have been unveiled months after a study by the UK National Ecosystems Assessment showed that the health benefits of living with a view of green space were worth up to 300 per person per year.

Phil Barton, chairman of the Green Flag Plus Partnership, said: "The importance of good-quality green spaces cannot be overestimated. They are central to the growth of our communities, both socially and economically.

"The Green Flag award scheme is essential in driving up the standards of our parks and green spaces.

"In these challenging financial times it is heartening that the number of awards continues to grow. As the value of green space and the role it plays in our communities strengthens, we must ensure these high standards remain."

UK communities minister Andrew Stunell said: "This year a record of number of parks and green spaces across the country have been awarded a Green Flag - a testament to all the hard work that local authorities and communities put in to maintaining them.

"The announcement of this year's winners also acts as a timely reminder to communities everywhere that there are hundreds of top-quality parks out there to enjoy."