Green Flag Community Award 2019

The Green Flag Community Award was introduced into Ireland in 2018, and will run again in 2019 with the support of the Department of Rural and Community Development.

The scheme is aimed at sites that are managed by volunteers, or by community groups or organisations made up of many volunteers.

Sites must be solely managed by the community group – this means that all decisions, including financial ones, regarding the site are made by the organisation responsible for its management and maintenance – although certain aspects of the site’s maintenance may be undertaken by other bodies, for example the local authority.

Any type of green space is eligible to enter, as long as the site is freely accessible. Applications will be considered from:

  • Tidy Towns Green Space Projects
  • Community Gardens
  • Parks, recreation grounds and open spaces
  • Village greens
  • Community-managed section of a larger site e.g. walled garden in a formal park
  • Churchyards
  • Woodlands
  • Pocket Parks
  • Allotments (as long as they are managed as a community garden)

The award of a Green Flag Community Award is based on a site assessment by trained judges, along with a supporting action plan that explains how the site is managed and looked after by the community group. Judges will visit the site at a pre-arranged date and time to meet volunteers and assess if the site is meeting the standard of the Green Flag Community Award.

Every green space will be judged on its own merit by independent judges. A Green Flag Community Award will be given to each green space project that reaches the Green Flag Award standard.

We will be starting the 2019 season with a network meeting/information day on Tuesday the 12th of February, which will be held at An Taisce Environmental Education Offices on Swift’s Alley, Dublin 8. This event will be open to all parties who are already involved, or who are interested in joining the Green Flag Award for Parks and Green Flag Community Award Scheme. If you have any questions or any feedback then please do come along to this open information exchange about the scheme.

For further information or to register to attend the network meeting / information day on Tuesday the 12th of February please contact Robert Moss at rmoss@eeu.antaisce.org

For more information see the http://www.greenflagaward.org/ website.

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