Nottingham City Council's award-winning parks and green space service team

Nottingham City Council was awarded the Best Service Team: Parks and Green Spaces award at the APSE Service Awards in Liverpool, recognising their outstanding commitment to delivering vibrant, accessible and welcoming green spaces for the city.  

Over the past year, Nottingham City Council has transformed its parks and green space service through targeted investment and the launch of the Greener, Healthier, Happier Nottingham Strategy. 

The council's Greenspace and Natural Environment Service secured more than £1.1 million in external funding, which has been invested in parks, play areas and heritage sites across the city, helping to enhance community spaces, protect local heritage and improve access to high-quality green environments for residents. 

Despite financial pressures and increasing demand on public spaces, the service has delivered a transformative programme of capital investment, operational improvement, commercial growth and community engagement. This work has strengthened the city’s parks and natural assets, improved the quality of life for residents, and demonstrated a clear commitment to innovation, sustainability and social value. 

A major achievement for the council was successfully securing and delivering over £800,000 of UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) investment. This funding has enabled a wide range of improvements including new and refurbished play areas, surfacing upgrades, improved signage, biodiversity-focused enhancements and footpath upgrades. Parks across the city benefited from the funding, including Stockhill Park, the Arboretum, Woodthorpe Park and Locksley Park.  

The Council also secured £350,000 from the FCC Communities Fund to refurbish and create new playgrounds across the city. The investment has strengthened Nottingham's citywide play offer, ensuring that families have access to modern, inclusive and engaging play spaces regardless of where they live.  

As a result of further funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, Nottingham's beloved Victoria Embankment paddling pool has been reopened to the public. Local families have been able to enjoy the paddling pool throughout the summer, with thousands of visitors returning to one of the city's most treasured attractions.  

Another significant achievement was the return of St Ann's Allotments to Nottingham City Council management. As one of the largest and most historically significant allotment sites in Europe, its return marks an important milestone in the stewardship and preservation of the city's green heritage 

The service also opened the Green Heart, a new central green space designed to support biodiversity, recreation and community use. The project delivers 438% biodiversity net gain, planting 34 mature trees including a wide mix of species for climate-resilience and disease-tolerance. 

Alongside these investments, Nottingham City Council launched the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, setting out its long-term approach to restoring nature, improving habitat connectivity and strengthening ecological resilience. It provides a clear framework for future investment, partnership working and community involvement, ensuring that nature recovery is embedded across planning, development and land management. 

The council's parks and green space offering has been enhanced by the hard work of its dedicated team of volunteers. Volunteer participation has reached its highest level to date, with 480 active volunteers supporting the Nottingham Green Guardians programme and contributing thousands of hours to parks, nature reserves and community projects across the city. 

Looking ahead, the service aims to expand nature-based wellbeing programmes, increase social-prescribing referrals and strengthen community-led stewardship of green spaces. Future goals also include securing additional external funding, delivering further biodiversity gains and extending improvements into more neighbourhoods, ensuring Nottingham’s green spaces continue to thrive for future generations.