A Suffolk village will be flying the standard for top quality parks and gardens after receiving Keep Britain Tidy’s Green Flag Community Award.

The Jubilee Meadow and Orchard, in Bredfield, near Woodbridge, was among a record-breaking 1,686 parks and green spaces to be handed the honour this year.

Bredfield Parish Council bought the meadow – once ‘glebe land’ owned by the church diocese to provide income for the local clergy – as a village amenity in August 2013, with financial support from waste disposal firm Viridor and Suffolk Coastal District Council.

Local residents helped create a traditional orchard and improve the existing wild flower meadow.

Bird and bat boxes were installed, along with a barn owl box, two benches and a shelter, with improvements to the entrance, and wheelchair accessibility, ongoing.

Helen Young, chairman of the Bredfield Jubilee Meadow and Orchard committee, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a Green Flag Community Award for the first time from Keep Britain Tidy.

“This award recognises and highlights that people in Bredfield are benefitting from a green space of the very highest quality.

“This is a wonderful space maintained by the community, for the community, accessible to all – an open space to go into and sit in, to walk or explore at your leisure.”

Green Flag Award scheme manager, Paul Todd said: “All the flags flying this year are a testament to the efforts of the thousands of men and women, both staff and volunteers, who work tirelessly to maintain the high standards demanded by the Green Flag Award.”