Fair Isle Bird Observatory warden and administrator facing redundancy
Fair Isle Bird Observatory (FIBO) warden David Parnaby and his wife Susannah, who works as an administrator, have been told their roles are being made redundant.
David announced the news on Facebook where he said: “This is a hard message to write and it’s not a cry for help, an attempt for sympathy or attention or after any responses.
“It is something we wanted to tell people though, and it seemed like Facebook is a good a place as any.
“Susannah and I have been in a meeting today in which we were both made redundant by the board that runs FIBO.
“As the only two permanent staff members of the observatory, and considering the work that we have put into FIBO during the ten years we have run it, we are very disappointed.”
The observatory was completely destroyed in devasting fire in March 2018. Since then the observatory has been unable to generate any income.
Plans have been submitted to rebuild the observatory at an estimated cost of £7.4million. Many birders have contributed to a Crowdfunder, the funds from which will go towards the rebuild.
The rebuilt observatory was planned to for opening sometime in 2022 but it is not clear if the rebuild is still on schedule or even still going ahead. With the warden and administrator roles being made redundant it has led to many to speculate about the long-term future of the world-famous bird observatory.
11 February 2021
UPDATE 15 Feb: The Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust have released a statement about the redundancies and future of the observatory, read it here
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