A group of campaigners met outside the gates of Nottingham Castle and demanded that the grounds should be opened to the public for free. The attraction suddenly closed last month as the trust that ran the castle announced it was in the process of appointing liquidators.
It came just 18 months after undergoing a £33m revamp, with the castle being put back under the control of Nottingham City Council. Protestors met outside the attraction at 2pm on Saturday, December 3 in a bid to get the gates open "as soon as possible".
The city council said it was keen to reopen the site but needed to "take stock of the situation" left by the trust. Tom Unterrainer, who led the protest, said letting people in was "the least they could do".
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"We've been concerned since the castle reopened that people of the city had to pay the price of a quite expensive ticket to get into what is effectively our park and our building," said the 42-year-old publisher from Forest Fields. "We think that now the control of this site has moved back to the council the least they could do is open the gates again and let the people in."
He said people had "voted with their feet" by not visiting the attraction in high numbers since its reopening. "Obviously it's more complicated to open the buildings inside but the grounds and the park, the council runs successful parks, they could do the same here," continued Mr Unterrainer. "I'd like to see them open as soon as possible."
Campaigners made a list of three demands, which they stuck to the gates; to open the castle gates, let residents and visitors in and to not charge for entry. Carol White, who volunteered at the castle, did not take part in the protest but was at the gates.
"I'd been there since it reopened, all my friends lost their jobs with immediate effect. No-one had a warning, it was horrible," said the 61-year-old. "I got to know everybody and got to care about them, we just got let down.
"Staff were called in early on the day and got given a redundancy package. It was the biggest shock possible, everybody was really shocked."
Mr Unterrainer added: "I think it's absolutely shocking, one of the worst things for me was finding out cleaning staff turned up with no warning and were asked to hand in their badges and were sent on their way. That's really no way to treat people.
"It's symptomatic of the way the people of our city have been treated. Excluding large numbers of people who couldn't afford a ticket to enter our park and our castle, it's an utter disgrace."
A city council spokesperson said: “We understand the desire to see the castle site re-open and we’re as keen as anyone to do so as soon as possible. However, we have only just been handed back the vacant site by the liquidators and need to take stock of the situation left by Nottingham Castle Trust.”
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