How Derbyshire B&Bs are offering help to NHS and frontline workers

Derbyshire B&Bs are throwing open their doors for NHS staff and other frontline workers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Thousands of workers across the UK are being forced to relocate or isolate away from their families to carry out essential work during the crisis.

A new website is bringing together available rooms in one central location so people can find accommodation while they carry out their jobs.

Victoria Kemble, left, with Jo Ferguson at the Ashover B&B which has been offering a room to health staff.Victoria Kemble, left, with Jo Ferguson at the Ashover B&B which has been offering a room to health staff.
Victoria Kemble, left, with Jo Ferguson at the Ashover B&B which has been offering a room to health staff.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

More than 1,000 properties have already listed their rooms on the Stays for Heroes site, an initiative launched by online booking specialist eviivo.

Veronica Kemble, of Oaks Lane Farm, at Ashover, has signed up and says she is ‘incredibly proud’ to have provided a room for NHS staff.

Veronica was ‘anticipating a good year’ for her B&B after winning awards in 2019, but the pandemic quickly saw her prospects for 2020 deteriorate.

She said: “All of this is nothing compared to the mental and physical anguish suffered by so many people across the UK and if there’s one thing people are good at in this country, it’s rallying round to help each other.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Rather than have our B&B and holiday cottage lying idle, we put both properties forward for eviivo’s Stays For Heroes initiative which uses our space as accommodation for key workers in these unprecedented times.

“For the last two months we have been proud to have a member of the NHS who has had to live and work away from her family staying in our cottage. Being able to support the

monumental effort being made by NHS staff and key workers is something we’re incredibly proud to be involved in.”

Eviivo is now appealing to other property owners to list their accommodation on the site.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ian Hardwick, partnerships director, said: “We decided to bring our community of properties together to try to help those most at need while also supporting these local, often family-run businesses at the same time.

“In recent weeks there has been a real sense of coming together, and we hope that through Stays for Heroes we can do our bit to support.”

Visit the Stays for Heroes website for more information.

Related topics: