England Excellence Awards 

9 October 2008

Last year, Chesterfield's state-of-the-art Tourist Information Centre (TIC) won Silver in the England for Excellence awards but this year, they have gone one better and grabbed the Gold for the best TIC in the East Midlands region.

The Borough Council's information centre, situated in the shadow of Chesterfield's famous Crooked Spire Church, beat other short-listed TICs from Castleton and Leicester to win the Best TIC category.

Chesterfield TIC received this year's Gold Award for the exemplary way that it helps visitors through all 6 stages of their journey, from deciding where to visit through to returning home and remembering their holiday.

The Silver Award went jointly to Castleton and Leicester TICs.

The Award was presented to Chesterfield TIC by TV personality Dominic Littlewood at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham on Wednesday 8 October.

It was accepted on behalf of the Council by Chesterfield's Tourism Officer, Bernadette Wainwright, the TIC Supervisor Kerry Sheldon and TIC Assistants Helen Gregory and Rachael Allen.

At the same awards, Bolsover Castle received a Silver Award in the best large attraction category, with Kedleston Hall near Derby taking the Gold and Crich Tramway Museum the Bronze, making it a Derbyshire hat trick!

Ruth Hyde, Tourism Director of East Midlands Development Agency said,
"This year we saw a twenty five percent increase in applications making the competition tougher than ever so congratulations all of the Derbyshire winners.

"They should be proud of their achievement as they have shown they are prepared to go the extra mile to ensure visitors have an exceptional experience.

"Businesses need to listen to their visitors and be ready to adapt to changing demands, and this year's winners have shown they are really taking this on board.

Consumers have never demanded such high quality and value for money so it's critical that the region's tourism businesses continually strive for excellence."