THREE people have been laid off at the Zoo.
The Island’s No 1 tourist attraction has been hit by falling visitor numbers in recent years, and the redundancies are part of a drive to cut costs.
Last year the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust reported income of £3.9 million but expenditure of £5.2 million, and serious thought has been given over the last two years to relocating the Zoo out of the Island to somewhere with lower running costs and a bigger visitor market.News of the job cuts was broken to staff yesterday.
It is understood that one of those to lose his job is Tony Allchurch , one of the longest-serving members of staff and its director of veterinary services.
But the trust has refused to name those affected, saying only that two full-time and one part-time employees in ‘administrative support’ were involved.
The trust say that the need for their jobs had been ’superseded by new technology and restructuring’.Executive director Mark Stanley Price issued a statement today which said that the organisation had ‘regrettably’ had to make the cuts and that ‘while the decision was a very difficult one .
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it was necessary in the light of the trust’s economic circumstances’.He added that the trust had to make these hard decisions now to ensure that it was ready to face difficult trading conditions both now and in the future.
Article posted on 26th March, 2004 - 12.00am
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