A popular wedding venue and residential education centre for schools in Ventnor will close its doors for good on Friday as a direct result of the COVID pandemic.
East Dene at Bonchurch, which is run by Allnatt Venues, will cease trading on Friday (29th January 2021), it has been confirmed.
The centre has not had any school visits since March 2020 and there is still no sign that the Government’s ban on residential school visits will be lifted. Furthermore, weddings and other special events usually held at the picturesque venue have also been hit by the pandemic.
All staff have been made redundant, most of whom have worked at the venue for many years. They were handed termination letters yesterday evening (Tuesday). The total number of redundancies has not been confirmed.
East Dene is a well established and respected business and closes after some 97 years.
Wedding couples affected by the news are being contacted personally.
In a statement issued to Island Echo, the company has said:
“East Dene, the Allnatt Residential Outdoor Education Centre in Bonchurch, will cease trading on 29th January 2021.
Article continues below this advertisement “This is confirmed with huge sadness and regret and is a direct result of the Covid pandemic.
“The current surge in the infection rate and another lockdown period has made it impossible to continue for an organisation which prides itself on providing a safe experience for children.
“It is particularly upsetting that all staff have been made redundant, most of whom have served East Dene loyally for many years. In addition, it will impact on future weddings, special occasion and charitable events and all customers are being contacted personally to discuss their individual situations.
“This is a devastating time for a well established and highly respected business which was just 3 years short of its Centenary”.
1 day ago…
Quote “As of today 6.22m people in the UK are effectively out of work. That is out of 17.5m people who are ‘economically active’.
In other words, the UK unemployment rate stands at 32%.
Unemployment stats today show another rise in UK unemployment. 1.72m people now out of work. This official figure though doesn’t include the 4.5m on furlough”
Well it wont show those on furlough as they havent been made redundant and in effect still have work to go back to eventually and not unemployed as you suggest..
I’d like to know the source for this statement as the staff were only informed at 6.35pm on Tuesday evening
One of the staff????
Stella was the manager.
What a real shame. Best wishes to all the staff.
A complete and utter joke! closing businesses and making people redundant all because of over over reaction! The government should hold their heads in shame as where are these people going to get jobs now especially on the Island!
Why does everybody keep blaming the government , there is no money in the pot you
cannot help everybody unfortunately. You can not keep creating more and more debt
it is unsustainable. There will always be casualties, which is where the more enterprising youngsters will come into their own.
Why did they not claim all these free handouts to carry them over as most other businesses have done?
And furloughed the staff?
how do you know they havnt?
the pitiful handouts from government are barely enough to keep businesses going. They could have had every help possible and still folded.
Most of the staff that were employed at East Dene were seasonal and so would not have been furloughed.
What a shame, I remember going there in middle school I had a great time and made many great memories. I hope the staff are able to find work soon.
Maybe when all this is over it will be reopened eventually.
What a shame. Loved it when I went there. Another business destroyed due to the massive overreaction by the tyrants in government who have a lot to answer for having saved ZERO lives during this “pandemic”
I worked there from March 2019 to sept 2019 the staff are amazing and although the job I left there to go to collapsed cause of COVID I wish all staff luck and I will email you guys to see how you are.
dave