News Release 

Thursday 9 January 2014

Second international Green Flag Award for Rotorua council’s The Redwoods

Rotorua District Council’s The Redwoods and Tokorangi Forest have received their second successive international Green Flag Award, having first been a recipient at last year’s 2013 inaugural awards.

The Melbourne-based Parks Forum’s Green Flag Award is part of a worldwide programme which assesses the quality of parks across a strict criteria including safety, quality of facilities, management of the environment, historical features, and as great places for people to play and recreate. Parks are also judged on their sustainability practices and overall standard of management.

Rotorua District Council Parks & Recreation manager Garry Page, himself an accredited Green Flag Award judge, said The Redwoods was one of 23 southern hemisphere recipients of awards in 2014, six from Australia and 17 from New Zealand.

“Rotorua can be proud of its quality parks and recreation facilities, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Parks Forum to help raise park standards even higher in the future.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said she was delighted that a Rotorua District Council facility had received a second international Green Flag Award.

“It places us up amongst the best in Australasia for the second consecutive year. It’s a prestigious honour, a great accolade for our district and acknowledgement of the serious commitment to sustainable recreation places by the council and our staff.

“In particular, congratulations should go to our Redwoods Forest & Visitor Centre manager Julianne Wilkinson and her great team. They put in a huge amount of hard work behind the scenes to ensure the forest is available for recreational use, and much of the credit for this award should go to them for their dedication and professionalism.”

Parks Forum chief executive officer, David Clarke, congratulated the council on attaining the Green Flag Award for The Redwoods.

“Winning agencies can confidently promote their parks and reserves as being the highest quality green spaces, and providing a great experience for visitors. Local users, and national and international tourists alike, can be sure they will be visiting an exceptional park,” he said. 

ENDS

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