Five of Chesterfield’s parks and open spaces have retained their prestigious Green Flag awards for another year, meaning they are among the best in the country.

The parks and open spaces, maintained by Chesterfield Borough Council, received the recognition from the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy after they inspected them against strict standards.

They decided to award Green Flags to:

• Eastwood Park, Hasland
• Holmebrook Valley Park
• Poolsbrook Country Park
• Queen’s Park
• The grounds of Chesterfield and District Crematorium in Brimington, which are maintained by Chesterfield Borough Council on behalf of the Chesterfield and District Joint Crematorium Committee, which consists of Bolsover District Council, Chesterfield Borough Council and North East Derbyshire District Council.

The international award, now into its third decade, is a sign to the public that the spaces boast the highest possible environmental standards, are beautifully maintained and have excellent visitor facilities.

Councillor Chris Ludlow, Chesterfield Borough Council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said:-

“We are extremely pleased to retain Green Flag Award status in these five parks and open spaces once more.

“One of the council’s top priorities is to improve the quality of life for local people and providing green space that people can visit, play in, use to get fit and active or see wildlife is an important way to achieve this.

“A lot of effort goes in to maintaining parks and open spaces and I would like to thank all our staff and the members of our friends of the park groups for all of their efforts throughout the year to achieve results like this year-on-year.”

International Green Flag Award scheme manager Paul Todd said: “We are delighted to be celebrating another record-breaking year for the Green Flag Award scheme.

“Each flag is a celebration of the thousands of staff and volunteers who work tirelessly to maintain the high standards demanded by the Green Flag Award. The success of the scheme, especially in these challenging times, demonstrates just how much parks matter to people.”

The news come as Chesterfield is waiting to hear if it has been successful in retaining its gold award in the East Midlands in Bloom competition. The town picked up the honour for the first time last year. Judges visited Chesterfield earlier this month to judge if those standards had been maintained.

Over 120 children from Spireites Schools Partnership schools attended an ‘Educational Day’ at the Proact Stadium, organised by the Chesterfield FC Community Trust.

The day involved workshops such as Football Numeracy, aimed at engaging pupils with maths and Football Literacy, delivered by Chesterfield’s head of media & communications, Nick Johnson.

Derbyshire FA were represented by Cath Morton for a session on the importance of Respect in Football and in School. Tanya Noon from Central England Co-operative delivered a workshop on Healthy Eating, including giving the pupils a chance to make their own ‘fruit kebabs’. Diana Luke, who is a clinical therapist, came in to talk to the pupils about mindfulness and the power of positive thinking.

Emma Tooley, deputy head at New Whittington Primary School said:-

“The Educational Day was a fantastic experience for all of our pupils.

“They received an alternative insight into the football club and left feeling healthy, positive, informed and excitable! All the staff and players involved provided an excellent day and I’d like to thank them for their efforts.”

In addition to the workshops, the pupils were treated to a Q&A session with Chesterfield stars Ian Evatt, Sam Hird and Tommy Lee, along with new signing Scott Wiseman. Club captain Ian Evatt said:-

“We were delighted to be involved with the day.

“The kids told us what they had learned about healthy eating and we were happy to talk about the importance of that, as well as respect and how important mindfulness is during matches.”

John Croot, chief executive of the Chesterfield FC Community Trust, added:-

“All the kids thoroughly enjoyed the day, as well as learning key skills.

“We were happy to welcome everyone to the stadium – including some children who hadn’t been down before – to show them some of the great things we do with the community.

“The kids saw a different side to football and the work that we do and they relished the opportunity of learning while having a lot of fun. The event was a great success and we’re already discussing dates for next year!”

A range of organisations have joined together to discuss ways to tackle issues of homelessness and anti-social behaviour in Chesterfield town centre.

The Town Centre Summit, called by Derbyshire’s PCC, Hardyal Dhindsa, met for the first time on Friday (14 July).

The meeting saw representatives from Chesterfield Borough Council, Derbyshire County Council, Derbyshire Police, Derbyshire Probation Trust, health agencies, the voluntary and community sector, East Midlands Chamber  and Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins unite to find sustainable solutions to a range of issues.

This proactive approach follows reports of anti-social behaviour around bus shelters in New Beetwell Street and key town centre sites, including the Crooked Spire church, related to alcohol or drug taking, as well as periods where the number of people rough sleeping on the streets has increased.

The group agreed to work together to address the behavioural problems but was also keen to get to the root causes of the issues and help to support people to get themselves out of the situation. The group will focus on:

• Enforcement – looking at what powers can be used to control problems of anti-social behaviour often related to drug or alcohol use
• Treatment and support – to focus on providing longer term solutions to enable the people concerned to receive mental health, alcohol or drug treatment as well as finding long term housing solutions
• Welfare policy – focusing on asking the Government to reconsider some of the changes to welfare reforms that are contributing to the issue.

Hardyal Dhindsa, Derbyshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, said:-

“I was pleased to see such a good and positive attendance and would like to thank everyone who joined us.

“Everyone who came to the meeting had the best interests of the residents, business and visitors to Chesterfield at their heart and that is a good starting place.

“A lot of good suggestions were made and we have set up smaller groups to look at the issues identified and then provide practical solutions to them.”

Councillor Tricia Gilby, leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, said:-

“I felt it was a very productive meeting and a good first step towards dealing with the issue but everyone around the table recognised that success will be judged by actions and not words.

“There are no simple answers to the issues because there are multiple causes and so many different agencies have a part to play in providing the answers.

“What came across was a real determination to resolve those issues for the benefit of everyone in Chesterfield.”

At the meeting the agencies involved agreed to share information better so that opportunities to link up activities are not missed.

Jacqui Willis, chief executive of NDVA, which works to support health and social care related voluntary organisations working in Derbyshire, said:-

“We are pleased that the authorities are working together with the local community and voluntary sector to tackle these issues.

“The voluntary sector has a key role to play in providing long term solutions to the problems that individuals are facing and by closer working the impact of that work can be enhanced.”

Andy Watterson, business crime manager at East Midlands Chamber said:-

“There are some great schemes happening in Chesterfield like the Northern Gateway and it is important that the issues we have seen don’t impact on the success of the economic focus of these schemes.

“Chesterfield is not alone in having problems like this but it is important that we tackle them so that they don’t discourage people coming to visit, go shopping and do business here.”

At the meeting it was agreed that the wider issue of welfare reforms that are contributing to the causes of many of the issues that have been seen in Chesterfield would be raised in Parliament by MP Toby Perkins.

He said:-

“To find effective solutions we need to look at the root causes and the experience in Chesterfield has been that these issues have been exacerbated by welfare cuts implemented by the Government.

“Ministers cannot simply expect councils to ‘clear’ the streets of homelessness without understanding that making poor people poorer inevitably leads to the unfortunate scenes we’re all working to address.”