The parks in the heart of Worcester will have to wait at least another 18 months before they have a chance of gaining the prestigious national Green Flag award.

The city council wants to make sure Cripplegate, Fort Royal and Gheluvelt parks meet the highest standards before applying for the accolade, which is likely to be 2007.

City council parks and cemeteries manager Ian Yates said the parks department had started working towards gaining an award when it underwent a major reorganision five years ago.

He said: "We linked up with one of the judges and did a trial run exercise at Cripplegate. It highlighted a number of areas we needed to work on in order to get a Green Flag Award.

"Community involvement was one of the issues and each park now has its own friends' group. There was an issue about the state of the buildings, paths and play areas and we have been doing extensive refurbishment work. There is quite a lot of work going on in the parks.

"Then there was the issue of safety and security. We now have staff in the parks seven days a week."

Mr Yates said they also had to improve the horticultural elements of the parks and this year employed a horticultural officer who is training the parks' staff in various aspects of horticulture.

"We have a lot more to do. It has been a long journey. We want to have another trial run for the award next year and are looking at applying for a Green Flag in January 2007.

"We felt it was better to plan it all carefully and we are confident we will secure the award at the first attempt."

The Green Flags Award scheme was set up in 1996 by the Civic Trust and aims to recognise and reward the best green spaces in the country.

Worcester Woods Country Park at Nunnery Wood, run by Worcestershire County Council, is one of 17 green spaces in the West Midlands that has a green flag.