Help appeal to safeguard Shugborough Hall
Scores of volunteers will be recruited to help safeguard the future of Shugborough Hall, it was announced today.
It comes after it emerged half of all front-line staff at the Staffordshire estate are to lose their jobs as part of cost-cutting measures. The cutbacks also include the axing of the popular Candlelight Christmas celebrations.
The hall will also close on Tuesdays and the season will be shortened by nine days.
Bosses are now hoping to recruit volunteers to work for free from next summer onwards and make sure things keep up and running.
Councillor Pat Corfield, the county council's culture boss, said: "The estate will make more use of volunteers to help showcase the site's attractions."
Shocked workers were this week called into a meeting by Staffordshire County Council to hear the full extent of the cuts, which are hoped to save £148,000.
A staff restructuring will see the number of workers drop from 66 to 32 in the visitor service sector. A four-week consultation period where employees can give feedback has begun and will end on November 30.
Interviews will then be completed by January 18 and formal notices issued by the end of that month, with all the new changes beginning on March 22, 2013.
Councillor Corfield said those losing their jobs will be supported with help on putting together CVs, guidance on interview techniques and putting them in touch with Jobcentre Plus.
Cannock Chase Council leader George Adamson said he feared for the site's future.
"Shugborough is part of our heritage and it must be saved," he said today. "I knew this would happen. But it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You cut back so it's less attractive to visitors, so less people visit so they have to cut back more. It's dreadful."
By Claire Fry
