Northumberland shortlisted for its Love Parks campaign

The county council ran the campaign last July and it has now been highlighted as one of the best in the UK by national environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy.

The Love Parks Award recognises an outstanding event or campaign that ran during Love Parks Week 2017.

The initiative aims to ensure that residents and visitors use local parks and protect these important green spaces and the award was open to entries from all local authorities in England and Wales.

Northumberland County Council ran a social-media campaign to highlight why residents and visitors love their local parks.

Coun Glen Sanderson, cabinet member for environment and local services, said: “We wanted to promote the parks and the activities and things that people can enjoy there to a wide audience across Northumberland and the wider region. We also wanted to support pride in the parks for those who work there and who visit and enjoy them.

“Local services staff and parks team members encouraged residents and visitors of all ages to show why they love their local park – having their photo taken with the Love Parks heart or making a video clip.

“It is a great credit to our parks staff and communications team that the campaign has been commended by the judges as worthy of shortlisting for a national award.”

The campaign was primarily run through Twitter and Facebook, and the target audience was Northumberland residents and those who visit from the wider region.

Thirty-three posts gained a huge 42,059 impressions on Twitter, the equivalent of 13 per cent of the population of Northumberland and 845 people engaged with the campaign through likes, retweets, comments or other sharing or feedback.

On Facebook, seven posts and videos reacher 146,855 people and were viewed 67,300 times. They were shared 316 times and 746 people reacted to them.