Theme park set to axe 70 jobs

STAFFORDSHIRE theme park Alton Towers looks set to axe up to 70 workers as it continues to look for cost efficiencies following a spate of reputationally-damaging incidents.

More than an end-of-season cull, the theme park operator is understood to have started a formal 30-day consultation period on the redundancies, with staff in its hotel operation and other parts of the business all affected.

Earlier this year the theme park cut almost 100 jobs as it responded to falling visitor numbers in the wake of the accident on its Smiler rollercoaster.

The accident, which caused life-changing injuries for two people and left others seriously injured, resulted in park-owner Merlin Entertainments being fined £5m in September after a judge described the accident as “needless and avoidable”.

While visitor numbers picked up in the latter part of the season, the figures are still well down on 2014.

With the squeeze on leisure spending set to get more acute, Merlin appears to be acting now to try and insulate itself from further problems next year.