Remarkable rangers praised after top award
REDCAR and Cleveland Council have praised their ‘Super Rangers’ after two Teesside green spaces won a coveted award.
Keep Britain Tidy’s Green Flag Award was given to Flatts Lane Woodland Country Park and Guisborough Branch Walkway last week and were praised alongside 2,208 winning locations across the UK. The award demands very high standards and is the international quality mark for parks and green spaces.
Paul Bamber and Paul Murphy are Redcar and Cleveland Council’s Countryside Rangers, supported by Assistant Ranger, Megan Wilson, apprentice Rhys Marshall and a small army of dedicated volunteers. The impact of the pandemic on their work was enormous, making the Green Flag Award even more meaningful.
When the first lockdown hit, all parks and open spaces were initially closed, but quickly reopened to support the public’s mental and physical health. Lockdown rules did not permit volunteers to be on site, however. In short, these green spaces became even more precious, more heavily utilised – yet without a
fundamental part of their workforce.
Paul Bamber, one of the rangers looking after Flatts Lane, said: “We are still catching up now, two years
after we suddenly found ourselves as a tiny team having to rotate around every countryside location in the borough without our volunteers, we put a lot of work into developing new self-led trails, site features and a map, building up to a big publicity push and lost all that momentum when Covid hit.
“Our time is more dominated with repairs and catch-up now but we still think a lot about new initiatives and are looking forward to getting the sites even better than before!”
Paul Murphy, ranger at Guisborough Branch Walkway and several other locations across the borough, has worked for Redcar and Cleveland Council for 18 years.
He added: “We found ourselves battling not to let the environments we were responsible for get out of control.
“They still needed to be maintained, were still receiving visitors and it was a tough job; but we love our work and are getting closer now to being able to look at future plans again.”
The Countryside Ranger role requires a relevant degree – Bamber’s being in Geography and Murphy’s in Environment Management – along with other crucial licences and training, such as a chainsaw licence, tree climbing and emergency tree felling.
The stark contrast between the type of qualifications necessary serve to highlight the diversity of the role.
The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces.