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You are here: Home > News > Green Flag Stalwart Jennifer Retires From City Of London

• Green Flag Stalwart Jennifer retires from City of London

• Date:

  31st May 2008

• Contact:

  Sarah Egerton

• Organisation:

  The Civic Trust

Long term Green Flag Award judge, Jennifer Adams, has retired as Director of Open Spaces for the City of London Corporation, bringing a long and fruitful career to a close but she will continue as a stalwart of the Green Flag Award scheme.

Jennifer, 60, was appointed to the newly-created Open Spaces Department at the City of London in 2001 where she had responsibility for 10,700 acres of parks and open spaces including Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath and numerous other open spaces owned and managed by the City of London.

During the last seven years she raised the profile of these open spaces and led the City’s Open Spaces in consistently winning a record number of 13 Green Flag Awards with four sites given Green Heritage status in 2007. Jenny also chaired the steering group of the London Parks and Green Spaces Forum and has been involved in various regional and national strategic initiatives relevant to Parks and Open Spaces.

Prior to joining the City of London Corporation, Jenny worked for 17 years at the Royal Parks and managed the central Royal Parks, which included the gardens of Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Palace of Westminster and 10 Downing Street in addition to Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St James’s Park and Green Park. Apart from management and maintenance, she oversaw a number of historic landscape restoration projects.

Under her leadership the City of London’s Open Spaces have won numerous plaudits for setting benchmarking standards for Open Spaces provision across London. Her key achievements were:

• Established the Open Spaces Department and central directorate and has overseen and restructured the work of all the City of London’s Open Spaces and brought them in line with current needs.
• Encouraged learning and sharing best practice within the department by setting up staff conferences and working groups.
• Influenced and contributed to regional and national policy making on Open Spaces management and worked closely with national agencies such as the Forestry Commission and Natural England.
• Played an instrumental role in strategic groups and projects such as Green Arc, CABE Space and the London Parks & Green Spaces Forum.

On retiring, Jenny said: “I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have taken temporary care of the City’s Open Spaces which are our precious resources and are of such importance to local communities.

“I have greatly enjoyed working with a talented and passionate workforce. It has been very satisfying to be able to take a holistic and long term view of the needs and aspirations of those sites.”
Jenny is very much a city girl, born in St Bartholomew’s hospital, attending the City of London School for Girls and finishing her career in the City of London.

We at the Civic Trust are indebted to her work within the Green Flag Award scheme and look forward to her valuable participation for many years to come.