Cheddar Caves to close with 40 redundacies
A popular attraction in Somerset is to close for the foreseeable future with 40 jobs losses. Longleat Enterprises said Cheddar Caves and Gorge will not reopen this year and unfortunately it "could not seeing that changing in 2021". "The effects of coronavirus has had on our operations has been profound," it said. The all the staff, based at Cheddar, will now be formally made redundancy. Cheddar Caves and Gorge features a series of caves, a museum and cafe and also offers rock climbing activities in the gorge itself. The company, which also runs Longleat Safari Park, said the decision had been made in part because of the "trajectory of the virus in 2021 and associated guidance and rules".
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"With great regret amid the ongoing uncertainty and long timescales involved we have to consider making redundancies, which will affect the vast majority of our staff working at Cheddar," it added. HR director Simon Askew said they hoped to "reopen, in a way which is bigger and better than before" at some point in the future. "This would not be the end of Cheddar as a wonderful attraction, but it would mean we have to close the gates, for some time," he said. "As you will appreciate, our primary focus, at this time, is ensuring that we deal with our staff who are impacted in a way which is as fair as possible."
