Riverside set to reopen after floods

Another hotel victim of last autumn's floods is to reopen for business next month after lying closed for several months.

The Riverside Hotel in Branston, Burton-on-Trent, is to open on 2 April, five months after its 7 November flooding by the adjacent River Trent - just days after it had completed a £100,000 refurbishment.

Its opening coincides with that of Nottingham's Hotel des Clos (Caterer, 15 March, page 16), which was also forced to close after being flooded.

The Riverside Hotel, which was surrounded by water after the Trent rose by 17ft, was gutted in a £250,000 revamp which also included the property's 22 bedrooms, its 100-seat restaurant and its 120-seat function suite.

Malcolm Sexton, who manages the property with his wife, Brenda, estimated that the Old English Inns property had lost more than £500,000 in business.