NICOLA Sturgeon has rejected an urgent plea to let Edinburgh Zoo reopen this month to save it from closure and protect 300 jobs, saying it could lead to a “mess”.
The First Minister said she had “nothing but sympathy” for the zoo’s operator, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which is haemorrhaging £700,000 a month.
But she said the Scottish Government had to act “in careful and properly assessed” way and could not make exceptions for individual organisations or particular circumstances.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Only a few per cent of care home staff tested despite SNP pledge
“If we started to operate that way we would end up in a mess,” she told MSPs.
The comments followed an appeal from Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, whose Edinburgh Western constituency includes the zoo, the home to Scotland’s only giant pandas.
At FMQs, he told Ms Sturgeon the RZSS had warned that “if it cannot open Edinburgh zoo by the end of the month, it may face closure, which would threaten 300 jobs”.
He said: “Even with the furlough scheme in place, the society faces a burn rate of £700,000 in every month in which the zoo stays shut.
“It has adapted the zoo so that it can be operated safely for people to visit outdoors only, and with adequate social distancing measures in place.
“If it were to be allowed to open now, it could see a pathway to recovery.
“The United Kingdom Government will allow English zoos to reopen from next Monday, so will the First Minister listen to the more than 3,000 people who have signed my petition and allow Scottish zoos to reopen their doors now, before they face collapse?”
Ms Sturgeon said she wanted such organisations to be able to reopen as quickly as possible, but added: “We must do so in a careful and properly assessed way.
“We cannot start to take individual decisions based on particular circumstances or organisations - not because we do not desperately want to do what such organisations are asking of us - but because if we started to operate in that way we would end up in a mess.
READ MORE: Unused Louisa Jordan hospital could be used to help re-start Scotland's NHS and clear backlog
“The virus might run out of control and we would then have to reverse some of those decisions.
“Each Government has to take decisions on the basis of the advice that it receives and its own judgment.
“It is only a few weeks since I was being asked why we were not following a similar timetable to England on schools reopening, and yet now we are seeing a reversal of that timetable.
“This process is not a popularity contest. It is about trying to get things right, which I will continue to strive to do.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel