B&B Awards at Riverside HQ. Peak District National Park. Derbyshire. Smoke free b&b.

Recent awards are for Riverside HQ's continuing commitment to provide our residents with a 100% smoke free environment. Something which Jane & I believe in passionately!
They are the Smoke free Staffordshire Platinum Award and The National Clean Air Award Gold.
We are totally committed to our non smoking policy, and, it is continually reviewed to ensure compliance as requested by the award bodies.
It gives us immense pride to be able to display both of these coveted awards.

We are equally proud of our local Peak District awards for our continuing use of local Peak District produce, and our ongoing commitment to protecting the local environment.

Peak District Environmental Quality Mark
In 2004 we were approached by the Peak District National Park Authority to see if we would like to apply for the Environmental Quality Mark. For this award we had to show that we were totally committed to protecting the environment and to the conservation of energy.
We also had to show our commitment to the use of locally produced food, specifically from within the Peak District National Park boundary.
The Environmental Quality Mark is a certification that can only be achieved by reaching the highest standards of care for the environment in all aspects of management including -:

..Peak District Cuisine Award
As a result of us being awarded the Environmental Quality Mark, we were asked if we would like to join the Peak District Cuisine group, as we were already heavily committed to our use of locally produced foods from the Peak District.
We were awarded the Peak District Cuisine symbol to show that the main ingredients of your chosen dishes are grown or locally produced here in the Peak District National Park.

RIVERSIDE B&B is registered with BESST (Business and the Environment linked through Small Scale Tourism) - www.besst.org - an international project that is encouraging businesses to make the most of what is special in the environment in the Peak District (UK), Fyresdal (Norway) and Hylte (Sweden).

Here at Riverside HQ we are extremely proud to be able to display all of the above awards, and it is our policy to continually look for ways of improving our already exacting standards.

Riverside HQ - Quality guaranteed - That's our promise.

Recently we have become members of the Slow Food movement.

We are all enslaved by speed and have succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.
Here at Riverside HQ we believe in a slower pace of life, time to enjoy the simple pleasures such as rediscovering the flavours and savours of regional cooking using locally produced produce, thus banishing the degrading effects of Fast Food.
Fast food and fast life are not available at Riverside B&B.
For more information on Slow Food visit www.slowfood.com

Finally, you may have noticed that Riverside B&B does not have any star ratings or key awards from
the ETB, AA, RAC or other so called inspection agencies. The reason for this was based on cost and unnecessary prestige. Jane & I do not believe these awards reflect the business concerned, after all, who really wants a trouser press in their room nowadays? And the cost of inspection was a truly prohibitive £416 for the first year! Although subsequently, we have been quoted an equally astronomical £288!! This money we believed would be better spent on making even more improvements to our establishment, thus making your stay with us more pleasurable.
Everything you, the visitor desires is to be found in this magical location that is Riverside B&B, and is offered in abundance in a genuine, friendly and efficient manner.
Riverside B&B enjoys an excellent reputation in this exquisite part of the country for unsurpassed quality and genuine hospitality. Visit us soon and sample the Riverside B&B experience for yourself; we know that you will want to return again and again. Riverside B&B; once discovered, never forgotten.

Because we have not been inspected, we are unable to advertise in any holiday publications, so we are totally reliant on our web site for our business. We hope you were able to find us easily via the various Internet Search Engines, we work hard trying to make us easy to find.
If you experienced trouble finding us, please let Roger know.

Every effort is made to make all the information you need available on our web site, if for any reason you have difficulties using / navigating our site, or you cannot find the information you require, please inform Roger and he will amend as required and add any further information you request.

This is another recent email.

Hello Roger and Jane

We had a weekend at your Bed & Breakfast 29 and 30 April in the Woodpecker Room. We would just like to say that we had a wonderful time.

We thought we just had to tell you what we thought of your Bed & Breakfast. We thought it was the best Bed & Breakfast we have stayed in. We thought that everywhere in the house was so clean and the idea of it being none smoking was very good.

Our room was lovely with every little detail matching and every little detail thought of down to the fruit in the room and the choccie biscuits which I enjoyed. The thing we will remember will be the lovely breakfast with the fresh fruit and the home made bread and the amount of breakfast we got, Well done!! on everything. You both made us so welcome that we will definitely be back again and we have recommended you to our friends as well. All in all WELL DONE TO YOU BOTH ! hope to see you again. Soon I hope. 10 out of 10.

Thank you for a wonderful stay.

Best wishes from

Julia and Steve Daley.

Comments from email received.

Hi Roger,

I just wanted to thank you for your superb hospitality at Riverside HQ. My
wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay there, and were surprised by some of
the little touches that one would normally expect in hotels rather than
B&B's. We were very impressed by the high standard of the accommodation, the
great food (being vegetarian, we were concerned about this, but as it turned
out you cater very well for vegetarians), and friendly personal service!
Suffice to say we will certainly be back, and will recommend Riverside to
our friends and family.

I look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Once again, many thanks!

The Official Slow Food Manifesto

endorsed and approved in 1989
by delegates from 20 countries

Our century, which began and has developed under the insignia of industrial civilization, first invented the machine and then took it as its life model.

We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods.

To be worthy of the name, Homo Sapiens should rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction.

A firm defence of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.

May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.

Our defence should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavours and savours of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.

In the name of productivity, Fast Life has changed our way of being and threatens our environment and our landscapes. So Slow Food is now the only truly progressive answer.

This is what real culture is all about: developing taste rather than demeaning it. And what better way to set about this than an international exchange of experiences, knowledge, projects?

Slow Food guarantees a better future. Slow Food is an idea that needs plenty of qualified supporters who can help turn this (slow) motion into an international movement, with the little snail as its symbol.