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Manchester’s first new city centre park in 100 years given prestigious Green Flag Award

Judges said that they had "never seen such an outstanding urban park" in the award's history.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 16th July 2024

Manchester’s first new city centre park to be created in 100 years has been given a prestigious Green Flag Award.

It may be on your radar that, for several years running now, green spaces in Greater Manchester have deservingly been recipients of the prestigious Green Flag Award – which is an internationally-recognised honour given annually to the parks, green spaces, and cemeteries that have “attained a high standard of green space”.

Green Flag Awards are granted by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy each year to recognise accessible green spaces that set “an international benchmark for management”.

And it looks like 2024 has proven to be a stand-out year for our region too, as Manchester‘s newest urban park, Mayfield Park – otherwise known as the city centre‘s first new park in 100 years – has been handed the coveted honour this year.

Judges said that they had “never seen such an outstanding urban park” in more than 20 years of judging the award.

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Manchester’s first new city centre park in 100 years has been given the prestigious Green Flag Award / Credit: Richard Bloom (via Mayfield MCR on Instagram)

“The original design and specification standards are exceptional, the facilities are of the highest standard, and the site security and cleansing is excellent,” Green Flag Award judges said of Mayfield Park as they gave it the honour for 2024.

“The play facilities are inspired and exciting, the horticultural and arboricultural standards are brilliant, and the biodiversity of the site is cared-for and blooming.

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“It was a real pleasure and privilege to be the first to judge this world-class park.”

Judges said that they had “never seen such an outstanding urban park” / Credit: Richard Bloom (via Mayfield MCR on Instagram)

While it may be one of the most well-known nationally, and certainly one of the most prestigious, the Green Flag Award isn’t the only honour Mayfield Park has been bestowed since it first opened to be public back in 2022.

Just this year alone, it has already scooped up eight accolades for things like excellence in landscape design, place regeneration, and the natural environment.

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Laura Percy, who is the Senior Development Director at Landsec U+I on behalf of the Mayfield Partnership, said that the park’s creators and managers are “thrilled” to win the prestigious award, adding that: “This is recognition to all those who helped to create and deliver this incredible green space, and to the management team who ensure every day that it is a vibrant, welcoming and safe space for everyone to enjoy.

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“It’s a joy to come to work every day here and see kids playing and people from across the region coming to visit.”

Featured Image – Richard Bloom (via Green Flag Award)

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Leeds Festival 2024 says it has ‘lost’ two stages amidst Storm Lilian weather

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Leeds Festival 2024 says it has 'lost' two stages amidst Storm Lilian weather

Two stages at Leeds Festival 2024 will be shut down after the site was battered by strong winds during Storm Lilian.

The huge festival, which officially kicks off today, said that although there is ‘an end in sight’ to the high winds that have been flattening tents and causing travel disruption, the damage has already been done to the festival site.

Leeds Festival has said that it won’t be opening the arena at 11am as planned, but aims to have fans dancing in the fields as soon as possible, The Hoot Leeds reports.

They also confirmed that two major stages – the BBC Radio 1 stage and the Aux stage – have been ‘lost’.

There’ll be no performances on either stage on Friday, the first full day of the massive music festival.

In their statement, Leeds Festival said: “We can see an end in sight to the high winds. We definitely won’t be opening the arena at 11am, but we are targeting as soon as possible after that and we will update you further.

“However, we have definitely lost the BBC Radio 1 stage today, and there will be no performances on it.

“We have also lost the Aux stage today, and there will be no performances on it.

“We remain hopeful that everything else will continue as planned and that we will still have an amazing weekend. Please await further information.”

This year’s line-up includes headline performances from Fred Again, Liam Gallagher, Blink-182, Lana Del Rey and Catfish and the Bottlemen.

The Met Office has now issued a statement to those at Leeds Festival, including a word of advice about tents.

Warning campers at Leeds Festival 2024, Mr Dewhurst added: “The wind will pick up in that area through the night, particularly strongest towards dawn and then first thing in the morning, before then easing through the morning.

“So there could be potentially some impacts from those strong winds, of 50 to 60mph in the area so it’s worth making sure your tents are secured. There could also be disruption first thing to the transport networks for those travelling first thing.”

Read more: Jermaine Jenas reacts to being sacked by the BBC for ‘workplace conduct’ live on talkSPORT

Featured image: The Hoot Leeds

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Jermaine Jenas reacts to being sacked by the BBC for ‘workplace conduct’ live on talkSPORT

Danny Jones Danny Jones Jermaine Jenas reacts to being sacked by the BBC live on talkSPORT

Jermaine Jenas has become the latest high-profile figure to be sacked by the BBC this week following complaints about his workplace conduct, with the former footballer reacting to the news whilst he was live on air with talkSPORT.

Jenas, 41, was officially sacked by the BBC on Thursday following what has so far been loosely described as inappropriate behaviour, with allegations pertaining to texts and other digital messages that were raised as a complaint.

The corporation was made aware of unsolicited communications a few weeks prior and it was only yesterday that the former footballer was removed from his roles on The One Show, Match of the Day and any other appearances for the network.

Reacting to the news whilst live on air for Hugh Woozencraft’s footballer transfers show, Jenas didn’t have much to say on the matter but you can hear a palpable tension in the air during the short impromptu radio segment.

As you can hear, while Jenas repeatedly insists he “can’t talk about it” as he is pressed on details surrounding the claims and the timeline of events, he does confess right from the off: “As you can probably see, I’m not happy about it.”

Going on to state that he will “have to let the lawyers deal with it” and “there are two sides to every story, as we know”, the ex-Newcastle and Spurs star is clearly trying to wrap up his time on the show as soon as possible.

A BBC spokesperson also clarified: “We can confirm that he [Jenas] is no longer part of our presenting lineup and that he has now been removed from their MediaCity HQ mural over in Salford, which previously featured Jenas alongside his former BBC Sport colleagues.

After Jenas then asks if they are still recording and if his microphone can be turned off, the line of questioning continues: “I can see that you’re fuming and I understand there are certain things you can’t talk about, but you are a major BBC star. Can you articulate any of your emotions towards the BBC and towards this happening to you?”

Refusing to be pressed on whether he knew about the decision before coming on the show and whether he’d like to apologise to any of the parties involved, he simply reiterates that he cannot talk about the situation for the 12th and final time.

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Neither Jenas himself nor his representatives are yet to issue an official statement on the matter and the BBC hasn’t given any further comment on the person(s) involved at the time.

This comes just a few months after fellow leading presenter Huw Edwards officially resigned from the BBC back in April following his own series allegations before ultimately pleading guilty to indecent images in July.

BBC’s official Code of Conduct states: “We want the standards here to give you the confidence to ask any questions if you’re not sure about something, and to speak up if you see something that doesn’t meet these standards. When you do, we’ll listen; we’ll talk openly, and we’ll act.”

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Featured Images — BBC Sport (via screenshot/Irwandy (via Flickr)

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