Following the recent news that Lydiard Conference Centre Staff have been handed redundancy notices from their employer The Chartridge Conference Company Ltd, Lydiard Park Heritage Trust’s Mike Bowden commented, “The trustees of the Lydiard Park Heritage Trust are saddened to hear that staff at Lydiard Park Conference Centre have received redundancy notices from their employer, The Chartridge Conference Company Ltd. These are worrying times for the hardworking and loyal members of staff and we feel for them.
All relevant parties have known that the Chartridge Conference Centre business has been on a downward trend for some time. Indeed the extension of the due diligence period, between ourselves and Swindon Borough Council, is in part due to uncertainty regarding the future of the conference centre.
We fear that Lydiard House itself would be at grave risk if the conference centre were to be left unoccupied for even a short period of time. The conference centre should be providing vital income to support the running of the House and Park. We therefore trust that Swindon Council has a contingency plan in place and that they, as owners of the building, will take steps to ensure that a way is found to keep the conference centre open for business.”
The Labour Shadow Lead for Lydiard, Councillor Jane Milner-Barry, also said: “It is really worrying that the Council have let a situation develop where Chartridge employees have been handed redundancy notices on mass, potentially leaving the Conference Centre dormant for a long period. This really hasn’t been well handled.
It is unclear if bookings, like weddings, at the conference centre will be met. However if they are not this could have knock-on implications for future private bookings at Lydiard, as the management of all things related to the heritage site will be called in to question.
Swindon Council needs to take a firm grip of the situation to ensure there is an orderly transition of conference centre management to a new operator.”
A Swindon Borough Council spokesman responded: “We are aware that Chartridge will stop operating the Lydiard conference centre at the end of March. We are in discussions with Chartridge to minimise the impact on any bookings and will be considering options for the future of the conference centre. In the meantime, the due diligence period with the Lydiard Park Heritage Trust will continue.”
Wonder if this is all a part of a bigger plan to sell lydiard park off to a private entity whicn we have all heard the rumours of?…