Cassiobury Park is officially one of Britain’s top ten favourite parks following Keep Britain Tidy’s announcement of the winners of its 2017 ‘People’s Choice’ poll.

This year’s poll was the most popular ever with over 70,000 people casting their vote to decide on Britain’s best loved green and open spaces. Cassiobury Park joins winners from across England, Scotland and Wales who can all claim that they hold a very special place in the hearts of their local communities. 

Earlier this year Keep Britain Tidy awarded a record-breaking 1,799 Green Flag Awards to the nation’s best-managed parks and green spaces. Eleven of these Green Flag winners were Watford parks and open spaces – a record number in Hertfordshire. However, to find the best of the best, the environmental charity asked the public to vote for their favourite. 

Cllr Peter Taylor, Cabinet Member for Client Services, said: “Cassiobury is the jewel in Watford’s crown – an amazing beauty spot with a lot of history behind it. This year we have celebrated the outstanding results of our decision to enhance Cassiobury. With support from the Heritage Lottery and Big Lottery Funds we have invested £6.6million in the improvement programme and it is great that this has been recognised by park visitors. With the new Cassiobury Park Hub, state of the art paddling pools with exciting splash pool and water features, a refurbished bandstand now back in its original home and a packed programme of activities all year round it is not hard to see why the park is a top ten destination.”

John Priestley, Horticultural Development Manager at Veolia who maintain Cassiobury on behalf of the council, said: “We are absolutely delighted to hear that so many people voted for Cassiobury Park. Being named one of 10 most loved parks in Britain is a wonderful achievement which wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of our partners at Watford Borough Council, Veolia staff and our hard working and committed volunteers.”

Visit watford.gov.uk/cassiobury to learn more about what makes Cassiobury a top 10 UK park, including details of the half term events coming up, finishing with the spooky Park in the Dark.