Garden volunteers celebrate Green Flag status

Friday, 25 July 2025 14:24

By Gareth Joy X @lookoutwales2

GVS

Volunteers at a community garden in Llantwit Major are celebrating after winning a Green Flag award for the first time.

The CF61 garden on Station Road was one of seventeen locations to secure the prestigious status from Keep Wales Tidy earlier this month.

The Green Flag Community Award recognises green spaces with strong community involvement, biodiversity and envrionmental management.

Most of the gardens are permanently open to the public, including a sensory garden, vegetable plots, an allotment, a mini orchard and a dedicated nature area for children.

A dedicated team of volunteers make used of recycled and repurposed items to make the garden as eco-friendly as possible - there's also a composting system and a wormery providing as much peat free compost and fertiliser as possible.

The garden relies on grants and plant & equipment donations from the local community, with other groups and the local college working alongside the garden volunteers - with all the produce given to the GVS Foodshare Pantry, which is also based at the CF61 centre.

Paul Warren, GVS operations manager, said: "It’s fantastic to hear that the Green Flag Community Award has been awarded to the CF61 gardens. Huge thanks must go to the dedication of all our volunteers whose ideas, inspiration and hard work have made this award possible."

In total, sixteen green spaces in the Vale were given community awards - while the Merthyr Dyfan cemetery in Barry was the only site to secure full Green Flag status.

In Penarth, the West House Garden and the town's cemetery lost their status after the town council decided not to apply this year.

Last year, Vale of Glamorgan Council withdrew from the scheme in a cost-cutting move, which saw eight parks in the Barry and Penarth areas stripped of their status.

The local authority did not apply again this year, but insists its parks are still "well maintained".

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