Swinton Park has been shortlisted in the Green Business of the Year category in the highly-respected Yorkshire Rural Awards due to be announced by BBC Look North presenter Harry Gration at a gala dinner in Harrogate on May 14. The evening will end with the Yorkshireman/Woman of the Year Award being presented by Shadow Foreign Secretary and Richmond MP William Hague.

Swinton Park has established itself as a luxury hotel but in recent years it has been striving to make itself carbon neutral too. Among the steps taken have been the installation of a state of the art carbon neutral woodchip boiler - the first in a hotel in the North of England and installing a high tech laundry system which not only removed the need to transport laundry elsewhere but also works at lower temperatures and with reduced amounts of chemicals water.

Chairman of the judges, Terry Fletcher, said: �Tourism is big business in the Yorkshire countryside and it can have a large impact on energy use and carbon emissions. The judges were impressed by the scale of Swinton Park�s efforts to cut its energy use and emissions.�

The Green Business of the Year Award is supported by Yorkshire Forward

Swinton Park Masham Ripon North Yorkshire HG4 4JH www.swintonpark.com

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NOTES TO EDITORS

The annual Yorkshire Rural Awards, created by Dalesman magazine with the backing of some of the region�s leading companies and organisations three years ago, are designed to celebrate all that is best in the Yorkshire countryside across a wide range of activities from voluntary groups and business to environmentalists and food producers.

Although other awards schemes existed for specific categories such as tourism or business, the YRA is the only family of awards specially created to cover such a broad range of rural activities and reflect the importance the countryside now plays in the national economy

Press Contacts : Felicity Cunliffe-Lister 01765 680944 felicity@swintonpark.com