Staff at Nottingham Castle say they are at "breaking point" with the situation at the famous attraction.
The castle has been mired in controversy ever since reopening back in June last year, with its board of trustees coming under fire.
Indeed, it was revealed the former chief executive of Nottingham Castle Trust Sara Blair-Manning was taking the Trust to an employment tribunal after she was dissmissed back in August 2021.
After her claims of unfair dissmissal came to light, Panya Banjoko then alleged her granddaughters had been exposed to a hate incident within the castle grounds.
Nottinghamshire Police investigated the incident but no further action was taken because the accused child was below the age of criminal culpability.
Now, a group of 30 former and current staff members have released a statement standing "in solidarity" with Panya Banjoko and say the situation has worsened for staff at the castle.
The statement says: "Along with a formal complaint by the Staff of Colour Collective, trustees received an internal Letter of No Confidence from the management team in November 2021. All staff attempts to have their voices heard have been ignored.
"Many staff have given up hope after trying their hardest to speak up and being blocked from bringing about even the most basic of positive changes needed.
"Colleagues have said they feel scared, threatened, gaslit, and are now at breaking point. We cannot go on like this.
"It is not unusual to see staff crying and visibly distressed at work. The situation is taking a huge toll on our mental and physical health and there have been times when we have been seriously concerned for the welfare of our colleagues."
An investigation by the Charity Commission cleared the trust of any wrongdoing but a second independent investigation, conducted by HR group The People Factor, found failings in how the complainant's, Ms Banjoko's, complaint was handled.
A protest was then held at the castle grounds on Saturday, March 5 calling for an apology to be sent directly to Ms Banjoko.
The staff members have called for the trustees at the castle to step down and be replaced with a "diverse and fully representative" board.
It accuses the board of driving out "skilled, talented staff" and "committed volunteers" by creating a "toxic culture" and say staff that remain are too scared to talk to trustees or senior management after seeing what happened to other colleagues who tried.
The statement adds: "We believe that positive changes cannot be made to Nottingham Castle and operational struggles will continue unless the board is replaced and becomes representative of the diversity of Nottingham’s community, and in tune with the responsibilities of managing a cultural site.
"We are scared about how some senior management members and trustees will react now we have spoken out, but this is the only option we have left."
They say past apologies and new anti-racist signage is merely "tokenistic" without proper communication with the board.
They also state they feel "silenced" and that statements put out on behalf of the castle do not reflect the reality of what is happening within the grounds.
Nottingham Castle declined to offer a new statement on the matter - previously, the Castle Trust Board said: "We have been in conversation with Ms Banjoko about attending a meeting to discuss the report and to find a way forward but have been unable to confirm a date.
"We have faced pressure to release the findings earlier than we would have liked but hope that [this] statement makes the conclusions and the positive action that has already been taken clear.
"To clarify, this report followed a separate police investigation into an allegation of racism against one of the two families involved.
"None of the Castle staff were involved in, nor witnessed, this incident, and the police closed their enquiry due to lack of evidence and due to this being a safeguarding incident. This matter therefore formed no part of the Trust’s report.
"Before touching on the conclusions made and the learnings that are being actioned, we want to formally apologise to both families. It is clear the incident could have been handled in a way that they would have felt better supported, and staff felt more prepared, potentially creating a better outcome for all parties.
"We apologise to our team who faced this difficult situation without that specialist training and to both families who trusted that this had been completed before their visit to the Castle.
"There are a range of findings and recommendations that we accept and are now part of a clear action plan."
It added: "To clarify that this independent report had an overarching objective of fully answering the letter of complaint and to specifically investigate whether Nottingham Castle Trust’s Complaints and Safeguarding Policy and Procedure was followed.
"It is also important to add that Ms Banjoko was invited to take part in the investigation and that she declined due to her stated lack of confidence in the board. This was not recorded in the report itself as Ms Banjoko did not speak to investigators but will be formally recorded in board meeting notes on 23 February.
"In summary, the report did not find that staff failed to assist the complainant and her family, police were correctly called, and staff did their best to take care of all children involved and did act positively in numerous ways.
"There are significant lessons that have been learned. The Safeguarding Policy was not observed in full and processes to determine the seriousness of the incident were not followed, and this is not acceptable."
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