Raising the Flag.

Cllr. Pat Williams displaying the flag.

Although the weather was miserable and damp, The Friends of the Arno and Oxton Fields met in the Rose Garden at 10am on Saturday the 24th October to once again raise the Green Flag awarded for 2015/16.

Finally raised.

Members of the Friends getting wet for a good cause.

We had been visited by the Green flag inspector earlier in the Summer. It was a gorgeous sunny day and his visit coincided with a group of children from Devonshire Park Primary School using the Arno Rose Garden and Quarry for their minibeast project. There were also joggers, dog walkers and some Mums and toddlers enjoying a picnic. This all helped to portray this as a popular, well used green space.  He was keen for us to encourage and develop people's interest in native flora and fauna. The inspector was pleased to hear of our Facebook and Website and especially positive about our rose appeal as he appreciated that we were keeping the tradition of the rose garden alive, where many others have been replaced with shrubs or flowers.

Despite the increasingly wet weather, some of us equipped ourselves with gloves, bin bags and grot grabbers and headed off to collect litter from both the Quarry, Rose Garden and Oxton Fields.