This week Pennytown Ponds was bestowed with the Green Flag Award, a nationally recognised sign to visitors that the park is well-maintained and well-managed, with excellent facilities.

Pennytown Ponds received the flag, which is only won after a series of close inspections from the Green Flag scheme’s rigorous judges.

It means Amber Valley now has four Green Flag parks, a record for a borough of its size. Leader of Amber Valley Borough Council, Cllr Stuart Bradford, said: “This is fantastic news and the Green Flags for four of our parks is even more amazing. It highlights what an asset our parks and open spaces are, and is testimony to council’s ongoing commitment for improvement and the hard work and dedication of the staff who maintain the parks for the public’s enjoyment.”

In Somercotes, proud chairman of the parish council, Paul Smith, has seen the Pennytown Ponds grow from a wasteland to an award winning nature reserve. He said: “Pennytown is extremely important to Somercotes, it was in a pretty poor way at one time but we formed a friends of Pennytown group to look after it and we worked with the community to raise the awareness of the ponds and promote them. The judges were as impressed with the ponds as we are.”