Anglian Water is celebrating a record-breaking year of five Green Flag Awards for five of the company’s reservoirs - Alton Water, Grafham Water, Pitsford Water, Taverham Mill and Rutland Water - and its first-ever Green Heritage Site Accreditation for Alton Water.

The Green Heritage Site Accreditation, supported by Historic England, has been awarded to Alton Water for the first time this year and is the only site in Suffolk that has achieved this status.

The Green Flag Award is the international quality mark for parks and green spaces.

Jake Williams, Head of Parks and Conservation, said:

“We’re really pleased that our water parks have been recognised with Green Flag Awards, and especially pleased to see Alton Water receive Heritage Site Accreditation.

“Our reservoirs are vital infrastructure, providing our 4.3 million customers with high quality drinking water, but they’re also valued open spaces supporting health and wellbeing within the local communities. The Parks are great places for people and wildlife and so it’s fantastic to continue to be recognised through the Green Flag scheme for providing high standards of management for customers and the environment.”

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for the management of green spaces across the United Kingdom and around the world.

Commenting on the news that the parks had met the Green Flag Award standard, Keep Britain Tidy’s Accreditation Manager Paul Todd said:

“I would like to congratulate everyone involved in making Anglian Water parks worthy of a Green Flag Award.

“These parks provide vital green spaces for the local communities in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northamptonshire and Rutland. This award is testament to all the hard work of staff and volunteers, who do so much to ensure that it maintains the high standards demanded by the Green Flag Award.”