** Listed in the South Norfolk Local Plan as ‘Important Local Open Space’ in the town, along with other open spaces (e.g. Fair Green, Diss Park, gardens in Mount Street) which are integral to the town's character. (Could these also be sacrificed as ‘reasonable alternative’ sites for built development? They also have ‘good access to services and facilities’.)
** Listed in the Norfolk Historic Environment Record as NHER.33463 as ‘The only example of a detached landscape park within a town in Norfolk’. This status is underpinned by a Norfolk Gardens Trust survey report, 1997 (funded by English Heritage) and endorsed by the landscape historian Professor Tom Williamson.
** Submitted as a candidate site for listing by Historic England as a rare example of a detached landscape park in a market town setting.
** A candidate ‘Local Green Space’ site being considered in the Diss & District Neighbourhood Plan process.
** A significant wildlife reservoir and network linked to local gardens; a bat survey undertaken in July 2019 showed that no less than eight species used the site for feeding.
** A Green Infrastructure asset which is part of the 'green corridor' linking Diss with its rural hinterland, and will be needed as such as & when new housing estates are built on the north side of town.
** An example of the UK biodiversity priority habitat 'Wood-Pasture and Parkland'.
** Noted by Poet Laureate John Betjeman in his film about Diss (1964) as integral to the character of the town and its rural links, being ‘a little bit of country coming right into town’.
** An object of intense concern by over 2600 people who signed the Parish Fields Friends petition to Diss Town Council and South Norfolk District Council (July 2019 to date).
** Subject of a vote by Diss Town Council that <The Town Council will not support the development of this site and the resultant loss of any of this historic important open space> (February 2020).