THE manager of a Bridport holiday park says it is suffering from a lack of job applicants as it approaches its busiest time of the year.

Mike Smyth, general manager at the Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, is worried his team will be severely understaffed going into the summer season.

Mr Smyth believe the issue has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

He said said: "We first noticed a lack of applicants for our roles a couple of years ago to be honest, which is when I first approached a recruitment agency.

"I put this down to the younger generation being funded by the bank of Mum and Dad, as clearly they didn't want a job working unsocial hours when they could be out with friends."

Mike said that the dearth of new staff coming forward really started to make itself known following last year's lockdown.

He added: "It was much more severe but we put that down to people's nerves possibly catching the virus and lack of esteem having not socialised during the height of the pandemic.

"It is incredibly hard to offer good customer service which is what hospitality is all about, without staff, particularly with opening this year having to offer table service which actually nearly doubles the staff numbers required and will be even harder to comply with when we can open indoors, as well as out."