Family-run zoo facing closure without new home

Georgia Hollinshead, general manager, said the zoo wanted to build an education hub

A small family-run zoo has said it is at risk of closure unless it finds a bigger site.

The Wild Zoological Park near Wombourne, south Staffordshire, has grown to more than five times its original size since it opened in 2016.

Those who run the site bordering Wolverhampton say they need to develop new facilities and build bigger enclosures in order to survive.

They add they want to find a location where they can provide a year-round education centre in order to expand a teaching programme.

Zachary Hollinshead, Zoo director, said: "We just need space - we have a real capacity issue.

"We want to give the animals bigger enclosures so we're looking for a farm or something like that, which would be great.

"If we can't find a space we would be looking at closure because we just can't sustain the overheads that we have with the size of the site."

Zachary Hollinshead, zoo director, said the attraction had a "capacity issue"

While the summer gives the site lots of business, the zoo is faced with £40,000 monthly overheads in the winter, when it cannot operate.

The company hopes that finding a new space will open new opportunities that will help its financial position.

Georgia Hollinshead, general manager at the zoo, said: "What we'd really like to focus on is building an education hub so that throughout the year we can run programmes - whether it's raining or snowing we can still have people in.

"That would mean we can still be educating and we can still be doing what we need to do here at Wild."

The team is looking for a base in either Shropshire, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley or Birmingham, although remaining in south Staffordshire is preferred.