Co Armagh park voted favourite in Northern Ireland

A Co Armagh park has been voted as NI's favourite park for 2022.

Craigavon City Park has topped the list in Northern Ireland, being recognised as a regional winner in the UK's Favourite Park Competition this year.

Research carried out by Fields in Trust, a charity that champions and supports parks and green spaces across the UK, named Penrhos Coastal Park in Wales as the overall winner, with Craigavon City Park placing in the top four.

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364 local parks and green spaces were nominated for UK's Favourite Park 2022 - over 30,000 votes were cast for parks across the UK which represented the wide diversity of green spaces, from large country parks to small neighbourhood pockets of green.

This is the second time that Craigavon City Park has topped the list for Northern Ireland.

Fields in Trust Chief Executive, Helen Griffiths, said: "We've had a fantastic response to the competition from all across the UK and I'd like to thank everyone who nominated and voted for parks over the past few weeks.

"The UK is home to such a diverse range of green spaces, and we hope that this award has encouraged people to truly appreciate their local parks. Our work to legally protect green spaces for good means we're well aware of the threats they face and how important it is value and celebrate them."

The campaign has illustrated how appreciation of our local parks has grown since the pandemic. As concerns mount over the climate crisis, green spaces have been proven to improve air quality and significantly limit the impact of heatwaves, by lowering urban temperatures.

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