STAFF at Aberdeenshire’s troubled prehistory park will lose their jobs today – but talks will be held later this week to try to rescue the tourist attraction.
The last four workers at the Archaeolink centre were to have been made redundant at the start of this month – the day it should have opened for the new visitor season.
But they were kept on for a further fortnight as discussions continued between the Archaeolink Trust and a potential investor.
Last night, Mid Formartine councillor John Loveday, who sits on the board of trustees, said: “I am still hopeful that Archaeolink can be saved.
“I did say things were going right down to the wire last week but it isn’t over yet.”
Mr Loveday said the trust remained determined to do everything it could to preserve the prehistory park at Oyne, and staff had made every effort to help achieve that.
But he added: “The situation now is that the talks that have been continuing over these past weeks have hit a complication.
“Unfortunately, we just cannot hold on to the staff any longer for financial reasons. We simply would not have enough cash remaining now to meet bills coming in and to meet the redundancy terms.
“They will get the package agreed but it does mean the staff redundancies will have to take effect.”
It is understood that discussions with the one remaining party to have shown an interest in taking over the site broke down because of a legal issue involving the terms of the deed of trust agreement.
Mr Loveday said it was a technical issue which the trustees hoped could still be resolved. “A breathing space is needed but further negotiations are being planned.”
He has described the prehistory park as “a great attraction in the wrong location” and admitted the tourism and educational aspect of the site would need a broader appeal to survive.
He confirmed it could take up to £2million in new investment to make a revamped Archaeolink attraction viable.
The identity of the party involved in talks with trustees is not being revealed.
The prehistory park was built at a cost of more than £4million and received £2.5million in local authority funding over 15 years before Aberdeenshire Council vetoed any further financial aid as part of cost-cutting measures.
Initially, Archaeolink was hailed as bringing both employment and 100,000 visitors a year to Oyne. But the numbers going through its doors dropped steadily to only 10,500 a year, with the council handing over a subsidy of £135,000 – equal to more than £13 a visitor – each year over the past five years.