OWNERS of Scotland’s largest theme park abandoned plans to furlough its over 160 staff and made them redundant because they could not afford to pay other salary costs, it has been claimed.

Details of the decision emerged after M&D’s which closed due to financial problems in April, was bought out of administration for £2.65m by businesses set up by the family of 71-year-old Matthew Taylor, who previously owned the much-loved theme park.

It has put a new management team in place just eight weeks after calling in the administrators.

On April 23, more than 160 staff were made redundant and left without wages when the theme park went into administration. The move, just before payday, angered staff who posted on social media that they were expecting to receive furlough payments.

Executives have posted on their Facebook page to their 81,000-plus followers that they are getting ready to reopen “when restrictions have been lifted”.

Papers lodged by the joint administrators Michelle Elliot and Stuart Robb of Leonard Curtis Business Rescue and Recovery reveals that the group’s workforce had originally been furloughed in March 2020, after the closure of the theme park and hotel.

It came after the M&D group filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on February 25 while under threat of a winding-up petition by the taxman, for a £416,000 debt.

The documents state the group considered whether use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) would “allow them to trade on out with insolvency”.

It concluded this was not possible due to the “lack of available cash flow funding.

The administrators were approached for comment.