News

That’s the 2017 R-Awards done and dusted!

Valley at Work won’t be starting on the 2018 R-Awards for a few months, and this gives us the ideal opportunity and space to produce the first Rossendale Food & Drink Guide. This will be a printed booklet that celebrates the best food and drink businesses in the area. Rossendale has a wealth of great food and drink businesses, and its about time we showcased them!

To be clear, we’re not just talking about pubs, cafes, restaurants and takeaways, the guide will include retailers and local producers. We want to showcase every type of food and drink business.

Our aim is to publish the guide early in 2018, printing 1000 copies and backing it up with a special page featuring an interactive map on the Valley at Work website. Each featured business will get a special window sticker to celebrate their inclusion in the guide.

Choosing Businesses for the Guide

We were looking for a relatively simple way of selecting the featured businesses that didn’t involve either an entry form, a judging panel or a public vote. In the end we decided that to feature in the 2018 guide, a business would have to:

• Score at least 4 on their most recent Food Hygiene rating.
• Be rated highly by their customers on Facebook and/or Trip Advisor – we were looking for recent ratings of at least 4 (out of 5) by several customers.
• Give us permission to feature them in the guide.

Putting the Guide Together

We have a list of 72 businesses that meet the first two criteria, and we are about to get in touch to seek their permission to feature them in the guide. There is no charge for inclusion, as the costs of producing the first guide the support of Rossendale Borough Council and several R-Award sponsors.

When we have gathered the permissions we need, we will contact each featured business to ask for some simple information to include in the guide, along with any photographs and logos they can let us have. We will then assemble the guide and get it published.

The Future

We’re hoping that we will be able to publish this guide annually, and that it will lead to a much larger annual celebration of our local food and drink business community. Our view has always been that a Rossendale Food & Drink Festival would be a great thing for the area, but only if it happens across all of our food and drink businesses. A one or two-day outdoor festival (like they do in Clitheroe and Accrington) would be brilliant, but a fortnight of coordinated events in the food and drink businesses community would be more sustainable and have a greater impact on the local economy.

by Catherine Smyth Media

AN INSPIRING deaf teacher won a national award for enriching the learning of her students.

Ayesha Gavin is profoundly deaf, but has always been able to talk so her lack of hearing was not discovered until she was four. Continue reading “Ayesha Inspires Students to Succeed”

by Catherine Smyth Media

A BACUP-based HR specialist has been acknowledged as among the top 10 per cent in the country in her profession.

Alison Driver, 56, of Bankside Lane, Bacup, has been running her own business Metis HR since she was made redundant six years ago.

She has just been granted Chartered Fellow status by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, CIPD, the largest professional association for human resource management in Europe.

Alison, who was a former manager at Rossendale General Hospital, said: “I am delighted that my experience and skills have been recognised by this accreditation.

“I work for 143 different businesses, mostly in the north west, and 49 of those on a regular basis, Everything from a company with just one employee to a business employing up to 65 people.

“Getting fellow status will help my business to stand out when people are seeking to employ an HR professional.

“It increases clients’ confidence because they will know the work I do is approved and accredited and it shows I have the knowledge and skills to help shape their business and deal with any HR problems.”

Alison has a degree in Institutional Management, a Masters in Business Administration, became an associate member of CIPD and then elevated her professional standing to chartered status.

“To gain fellow status I opted for an interview, which lasted an hour and 10 minutes; it was just like a job interview,” she said.

“I had to answer questions using practical examples of action I had taken with real clients to show how I was complying with the CIPD’s code of professional conduct and prove that I had the necessary skills.

“I also had to provide references to endorse and support my application.”

She has worked in management the public and charity sector, enabling her to acquire a range of tools to problem-solve whatever the client presents.

Alison said: “When you are working full-time in an industry it can be hard to see the solution to a staffing problem, but as an outsider I am able to use my industry knowledge to see things differently.

“Being granted fellow status is an endorsement that I am among the top 10 per cent of HR professionals in the UK so my clients can have confidence in that the advice I will provide for them is the best.”

To contact Alison visit www.metishr.co.uk or call 01706 565332.

by Catherine Smyth Media

A SALON in Rawtenstall has gone back to its roots and opened a traditional barbershop.

Nautical-themed Bosun’s Barbers is on the top deck of Antony and Patricia, A&P, in Bank Street.

It reflects the history of A&P Director Tony Winder when in 1967 he went to sea as a cruise ship’s barber initially on the SS Southern Cross then SS Oriana when he circumnavigated the globe several times. Continue reading “All Aboard Bosun’s Barbers”