Heaton Park and Alexandra Park have been named some of the best parks across the whole of the UK.
Over the past 18 months, parks and green spaces throughout the country have played a vital role for people in lockdown by providing a place to relax, exercise, and meet friends and family as safely as possible.
And some of those all-important parks are now award-winning.
Along with Gorton, Philips Park, and Southern and Blackley cemeteries, two of the city’s most-popular and much-loved suburban green spaces Heaton Park and Alexandra Park have been awarded the Green Flag Award.
Not only that, but Heaton Park – which covers an area of over 600-acres – has bagged the coveted Green Heritage Site Accreditation for the management of its historic features.
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Heaton Park / Credit: Geograph (David Dixon) | Wikimedia Commons
55 green spaces in total have been given the Green Flag across Greater Manchester.
If you’re not familiar with the The Green Flag Award scheme and why it’s such a brilliant achievement for the city-region, the international quality mark recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, and aims to set the benchmark standard for the management of communal spaces across the UK and around the world.
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This year, as the initiative celebrates its Silver Jubilee, more than 2,000 parks and green spaces are being awarded flags nationwide.
“Our parks and green spaces have always been well used,” said Cllr Rabnawaz Akbar – Executive Member for Neighbourhoods at Manchester City Council.
Alexandra Park / Credit: Flickr (Donald Judge)
“But never more so than in the last year and a half as the green lungs of our city have been a lifeline for many people during lockdown.
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“Although we know how good these spaces are, how dedicated our staff are as the custodians of our parks and cemeteries, the wonderful volunteers that help to make our green spaces what they are, it is also a fantastic achievement to get recognition that we are doing an excellent job for the benefit of all.”
Green Flag Award Scheme Manager Paul Todd has congratulated everyone involved in “making all these sites in Manchester worthy of a Green Flag Award.”
Featured Image – Geograph (David Dixon)
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Kirstie Allsopp threw a banana skin at a driver in Stockport in littering row
Daisy Jackson
TV personality Kirstie Allsopp has admitted that she threw a banana skin at a driver in Stockport after she caught them littering.
In a furious rant on Twitter, the Location, Location, Location star said that she ‘leapt out of the car’ in order to pick up the fruity peel that was thrown out of another car window.
She then lobbed it straight back into the car, at the littering offender.
Saying that she’s been ‘horrified’ by the state of litter across the UK, Kirstie detailed the incident from her visit to Stockport.
Kirstie said: “In the last few weeks, travelling around the UK, I’ve been horrified by how bad roadside litter has become. Why is litter so much worse, who thinks chucking an empty red bull, for example, out of a moving car is acceptable?
“Last week in Stockport a banana skin flew out of the window of the car in front, we were at [traffic lights] and I was a passenger so I leapt out of the car, picked it up and threw it back into the car, the driver just threw it back out again.
In the last few weeks, travelling around the UK, I’ve been horrified by how bad roadside litter has become. Why is litter so much worse, who thinks chucking an empty red bull, for example, out of a moving car is acceptable? Last week in Stockport a banana skin flew
“But that’s not how to solve the problem. What is the solution…… £££ fines? In some places police take litter very seriously, I don’t feel that in the UK though. Closing roads to clear the litter? This would inconvenience us all, but would be a reminder of the cost of litter. Asking roadside landowners to clear their patch? What do you think?”
She later added: “I have a pet theory on this, I think a lot of litter is guilty eating, people consuming things they know they shouldn’t, and not wanting to dispose of the evidence at home.”
One fan replied to her: “Ohh you have been to my neck of the woods i have wrote to Stockport Council several times about cleaning all this litter up and there answer was ‘yes we are rotared to do a clear up in May’, i said ‘how about every month’, they replied ‘we do a clear up once a year only’. I just laughed.”
Yes, it’s true – in what is news that admittedly sounds fake, but somehow actually isn’t, one of the best rappers of all time has revealed himself to be an avid watcher of Britain’s longest-running soap, and is such a fan of it, in fact, that he said he’s “determined” to make an appearance on it sometime in the future.
The iconic ITV soap – which is set in the fictional Manchester suburb of Weatherfield, and celebrated an impressive 60 years of entertaining the masses back in 2020 – currently averages around six million viewers per episode, and has developed a well-deserved legion of loyal fans over the last six decades.
And it turns out, one of those loyal fans is chart-topping rap superstar Snoop Dogg.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun this week, the 51-year-old first spoke about how he’s “down to perform” at King Charles III‘s Coronation in a couple of months time, before he launching into how much he loves another type of coronation.
“Coronation Street, I love it,” the 17-time Grammy Award nominee admitted.
Snoop Dogg says he’s a massive Coronation Street fan / Credit: ITV / The Manc Group
“If they call me I’ll do it. I’ll play whenever they need. I love the cinematography, acting, the storylines and just the reality.
“I’d like to be a part of it because they’ve been a part of my culture.”
As bizarre as it all sounds, this surprisingly isn’t the first time the rapper – whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr – has publicly revealed he’s a fan of the soap, and even famously admitted all the way back in 2010 that he had his agent get in touch with ITV to see if there was any chance he could make an appearance.
“I had my agent reach out to them to see if they could try to get me on and they said they were interested so hopefully it might happen,” Snoop told the BBC.
“It would be perfect for me to be on the show.”
The chart-topping rapper says he’s ‘determined’ to get a role on it / Credit: ITV
The Drop It Like It’s Hot and The Next Episode rapper isn’t the only famous name who’s revealed himself to be a fan of Coronation Street in recent months.
One of the greatest and most well-respected singer songwriters of all time, Bob Dylan, also admitted in an interview with WSJ back in December 2022 that he loves binge-watching the soap.
Dylan explained that that he’s “no fan of packaged programs or news shows”, and that the ITV soap makes him “feel at home” despite being “old-fashioned”.
Emily Sergeant -
15th October 2021 
