Wild Planet Trust interim chief executive Stephen-Kings talks about Newquay Zoo's future

Tindle News

Watch Wild Planet Trust interim chief executive Stephen-Kings talks about Newquay Zoo's future - Tindle News on Dailymotion

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00:00so there's been a lot of public curiosity around the future of painting and zuki zoo

00:09can you reassure listeners about what's happening right now on the site well at the moment

00:16everything is as normal the animals are looking well in fact recently we just had a zoo inspection

00:22it's um at painting zoo and we came through with flying colors so all is good on both zoos

00:30at the moment what can visitors expect if they come to the zoo this season they can expect

00:37what they've always had um so it's business as usual business as usual the animals are great

00:42the staff are great um yeah all is normal are either painting or nuki zoos likely to close in

00:49the future in the near future in the near future no we've taken action now looking forward because

00:58we didn't want to get to a situation where there was a cash crisis at the moment as i've told uh

01:05staff very clearly that there is no immediate danger to the zoos but given the trajectory of

01:13income falling behind expenditure proper planning indicates that we need to move

01:21now to find an investment partner we are in a challenging financial situation it's not just us

01:29if you look across the west country there's scarcely a leisure or tourist uh organization that is not

01:38experiencing some kind of financial problems the whole country um is struggling with the cost of

01:46living crisis i am optimistic that with the right backing with our local community and if we can find some

01:54supporters who can invest more fully within the zoo um yes we are optimistic it is absolutely

02:02fundamental for painting and new key to survive as zoos into the future um not only because of the uh

02:10for the local community but also the fantastic work we do around animal research conservation education as

02:16i said previously we're working as hard as we can to make sure that um there is a future a strong future

02:22for our zoos let's expand on that a little bit so tell me a little bit more about how your funding comes

02:28about how people's admission fees uh contribute towards that and how you effectively use it to

02:36yeah well we get no government funding no local authority funding everything comes from the people

02:41who visit our zoos increasingly um we have not been able to get grant funding as you're well aware um there

02:50is a serious cost of living crisis uh within the country and actually wider than that as well so we're

02:58very very dependent on our visitors and also of course our members who are hugely important

03:03to us so how do we actively go about securing that investment for the next hundred years well

03:09and that's where we are um at the moment it costs just over a million pounds a month to run our zoos

03:18most of the money that we make is through the summer months and we're just about heading into the

03:24winter months when we don't raise anything like enough money to cover that million pounds

03:31a month therefore we are looking for outside investment not only for day-to-day running of the

03:37zoos but for the future of the zoos and why is there such a drive for seeking additional investment

03:43more funds at present well as is clear we are struggling uh financially um the costs uh our costs

03:55are increasing all the time and for lots of different reasons our revenue is basically stable

04:04so therefore we need uh more and more lots of people to come into the zoo to support us not only on

04:11a day-to-day basis but as i said through experiences adoptions memberships and so on and so forth um

04:18because not only do we need funds to stand still we need funds to invest otherwise there won't be a zoo

04:29in 5 10 15 years time unless we do invest in uh in new projects we cannot just rely on we've been

04:37here a hundred years we've done this and we've done that and we're great which we are and we do some

04:43fantastic work with schools in education in conservation all over the world but we actually

04:50need to keep changing evolving um developing um the zoo so that meets uh the requirements um particularly

04:59people like um events to take place they they they want change they want things to improve and that's

05:08exactly what's behind our our current situation we we want to raise funds to improve the zoo so the zoos

05:15will be even better looking into the future right the main message is we're open for business we are one

05:23of the most important aspects of the local economy uh within torbay and within newkey we have tremendous

05:33loving support from our local community from our business community our commercial community and we are

05:40determined to move forward but it is absolutely fundamental and crucial that we raise further investment

05:47um to enable our zoos to guarantee a strong future moving forward

06:00um

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