Gold for Brockholes
Brockholes Nature Reserve is celebrating after achieving the highest grade possible in a prestigious environmental scheme.
The Lancashire Wildlife Trust managed reserve, based in Samlesbury, Preston, has been given a Green Tourism Gold award at the first attempt. This followed an extensive visit of the 106 hectare site by an assessor from Green Tourism, who follows a strict set of criteria during the audit, before deciding on what grade the site achieves.
The report said that Brockholes “had done exceptionally well to enter the scheme with the prestigious GOLD award at the first attempt”. It praised the venue as “highly water and energy efficient” and noted the “excellent range of information available to the visitors”, before concluding that “Brockholes was an extremely sustainable destination and an excellent entry to the scheme.”
Green Tourism is the largest and most established sustainable national grading program in the world, with over 2,000 businesses across the UK, Ireland and Canada graded across the four different levels – ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’, ‘Bronze’ and ‘Going Green’.
Brockholes General Manager Kath Knight was thrilled with achieving the highest recognition. She said: “This is brilliant news for everyone involved at the reserve. From the initial planning stages we have placed a huge emphasis on being as green and sustainable as possible and it is a huge achievement to receive gold at first time of asking. Many thanks to everyone who has been involved!”
Previously a major quarry extraction site, the reserve has attracted well over 300,000 visitors since opening in April 2011.
Earlier this year Brockholes was awarded an ‘Excellent’ accreditation by Visit England’s Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme. In addition Brockholes is up for three Lancashire Tourism Awards next month, including the flagship Best Large Visitor Attraction award.
Visitors to Brockholes can learn all about the impressive green credentials of the floating Visitor Village in the Welcome Centre on-site or take part in some eco-friendly family events, for more information visit www.brockholes.org.