MORE accolades are to grace the walls of a caravan site in Bentham.

Riverside Caravan Park, owned and run by the Marshall family, has scooped the Best in the North West award in the Practical Caravan magazine's contest to find the top 100 regional parks.

The prize is considered an Oscar in the holiday parks industry and Riverside ticked all the right boxes during the strict judging process.

This included secret visits from judges who stayed at the park and scored its facilities and services, quality of upkeep and helpfulness of staff.

"We suspected that we may have gained a place in the top 100 when we were invited to the awards ceremony in Birmingham, but when we were asked to step up and receive the award for the entire North West it came as something of a surprise, but a very pleasant one," said Thomas Marshall.

The site has also received the David Bellamy conservation award for the tenth year in succession for the family's work to protect the natural world, the creation of wildlife habitats, tree planting and waste recycling.

Riverside is renowned for its innovation towards energy conservation and recently had four solar panels fitted which heat much of the hot water used in the park.

Riverside was started by Thomas' father, Bateman, in 1969 as a farm diversification project. Mr Marshall senior has just published the history of the caravan park, called "Thou's Stark Raving Mad". It contains details of when the site was started to the present day.

The book can be obtained from Bentham Post Office, the newsagents and the Riverside reception.