Animal parks and attractions across west Dorset are planning to reopen and have started preparing social distancing measures in line with the latest government guidance.

Jayne Collier, owner of Axe Valley Wildlife Park, is hoping to reopen to the public in early July.

She said: "We haven't put out any specific date yet because we have so much to do before reopening.

"All of our staff have been furloughed and we have had to put the animals first so everything else like grass cutting and strimming needs to be done.

"It's going to take a little while but we will get there. We are setting up online ticketing which costs money we don't have but is a necessity to control numbers.

"We are really excited about opening, because it's basically been a very expensive private collection at the moment, but we have to do things right so that the public and our staff are safe."

Karl Ives, manager at Vurlands Animal Farm, said they plan to reopen next month: "We are not quite there yet, obviously it was a surprise because they told us on the Friday that we could open on the Monday.

"We are planning on opening it all at once, with the cafe as well, on July 4. That's what we are hoping for, assuming the government guidelines are in place by then, but this isn't guaranteed. They haven't given us any more information on outdoor seating either and play areas will be fenced off."

Kingston Maurward Animal Park plans to open later this month. A spokesperson said: "Following government guidance issued in relation to the hospitality, retail, gardens, animal parks and zoos sectors, we are preparing to open our Animal Park and Gardens on Monday 29th June.

"Kingston Maurward is working hard to implement measures to ensure the safety of our staff and our visitors; including social distancing, hand sanitising and washing facilities, creating restricted areas, barriers and screens.

"We will communicate pre-arrival information on our social media pages, including asking that visitors do not attend if they are symptomatic. We have also carried out extensive risk assessments and produced a Covid-19 Policy, which are regularly reviewed within our Health and Safety Committee."

Mapperton House has opened its gardens and has set up some social distancing measures but hasn't opened its cafe yet. Claire Kingston, estate manager, said: "We’ve put signs up and haven’t opened the shop or café and everything is outdoors and we are wiping surfaces and handrails and surfaces and bench seats, thankfully being outside it’s all socially distant anyway, we are timing the slots people arrive which avoids are large number of people arriving at any one time.

"It's been great having visitors back, thankfully we’ve had not too bad weather and people are grateful to be able to get out and enjoy the beautiful gardens, it’s the perfect time of year for roses and daisies."

A Donkey Sanctuary spokesperson said: "All of The Donkey Sanctuary UK centres* will remain temporarily closed while we continue to focus our efforts on ensuring our resident donkeys receive the highest level of care by our dedicated grooms who continue to work as normal.

"Unlike other visitor attractions, we have numerous entry points to our sanctuaries, along with areas of very high footfall in the centre of our sites, this makes it difficult to safely manage the number of people coming onto site and to encourage responsible social distancing. Our international headquarters in Sidmouth, Devon welcomes 400,000 visitors every year, we believe that such visitor numbers congregating from across the UK will increase the risks to our staff whose main priority is to care for our resident donkeys.

"The safety of our visitors, staff and donkeys is paramount and is an overriding factor in our decision making.

"In the coming weeks and months we will continue to monitor the situation on a local, regional and national level and hope to share with you our plans to slowly re-open our public centres. Only when it’s safe to do so, will we welcome visitors back to our sites. We will never be distracted from our core mission of putting donkeys 1st, 2nd and 3rd in everything we do."

Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens reopened on June 4 and Abbotsbury Swannery reopened on June 6. A spokesperson added: "We are asking everyone who wishes to visit to book online, indicating their date and time of arrival. We are restricting the number of hourly arrivals to 60 people so that we can monitor the number of people onsite at any one time, and ensure that we can maintain appropriate social distancing."

Forde Abbey began gradually opening its gardens on May 30, although for now the house and cafe remain closed.

CONTACT ME:

t: 01305 830999

e: alex.cutler

@dorsetecho.co.uk

twitter: @EDorsetEchoAlex