Six Dacorum parks keep their Green Flags: and the standard is getting harder

Six parks and green spaces in Dacorum have again been awarded Green Flags, the national quality mark for public parks.

The award is easy to treat as wallpaper. It is not. Judges look at litter, play equipment, biodiversity, volunteer involvement and whether a park feels safe after school. Losing a Flag is a public verdict that a place has slipped.

Gadebridge Park remains Hemel’s ceremonial green: Armed Forces Day was held there in June, and a self-service dog wash opened in August. The Jellicoe Water Gardens, restored in 2017, are a Grade II listed landscape, not a roundabout planting bed. Berkhamsted and Tring’s green spaces carry the same expectation on a smaller scale.

The pressure will increase as the borough grows. Hemel Garden Communities proposes thousands of homes north of the town. New residents will use existing parks until new ones are built. A Green Flag is only as strong as the maintenance budget sitting behind it in 2028.