Yorkshire Wildlife Park reveals planned re-opening date and how to get tickets

Details of re-opening plans were emerging today, after the Government confirmed yesterday it would allow zoos to reopen next week.

The venue plans to only allow only restricted numbers, with tickets pre-booked. Play areas and indoor areas will be closed. Only take-away food will be sold.

The park had taken a severe financial hit with 70 per cent of its 250 staff furloughed.

The lockdown has cost the park around £5 million in lost revenue and hit its ability to carry out conservation projects. The monthly cost of looking after and feeding over 450 animals and maintaining the park in lockdown is around £300,000 per month.

John Minion, chief executive of the park at Branton, Doncaster, said: “We now aim to open next Monday June 15 with restrictions in place in line with Government guidance. The safety and health of our staff team, our visitors and our animals are paramount.

“We have carried out detailed planning to look at how we can control numbers through only selling advance tickets with time slots and how we needed to adapt the site and our protocols for visitor management and cleaning in line with government guidance. Many zoos have already opened up in Europe, Ireland and on Jersey and we have been learning from their experience,”

“Seeing the park open again will be morale-boosting for the local community and our visitors from around the region. It will be a boost for local businesses too as we have over 980 suppliers that have been impacted by our closure. We are grateful for the support so far, and we hope that this will be sustained by people visiting the park to help us through the coming months as it will take a long time to recover financially from this enforced shutdown."

A restricted number of tickets will go on sale at the weekend on the park website www.yorkshirewildlifepark.com. Facilities will be limited in line with government guidelines.

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