Egg hunt cancelled over fear of breach
WELLS HOUSE AND GARDENS called off a scheduled Easter egg hunt event over the Easter weekend over fears that it may not have complied with Covid-19 guidelines.
Local visitors have been enjoying getting back to Wells since it reopened over a month ago and, with people allowed to travel within their count from yesterday (Monday), many more could be heading to stretch their legs at the Ballyedmond estate.
Sabine Rosler from Wells House said that numbers were restricted over the bank holiday weekend and that customers who had signed up for the Easter egg hunt were refunded.
‘It was a busy weekend and we were worried, as we didn’t want to be over-run with visitors in light of the Covid restrictions,’
she said. ‘We pulled back on our Easter egg hunt, but we still gave out free eggs to the children as we didn’t want to disappoint them.
‘We got a bit of a response on Facebook and there was a bit of a question mark around the organising of the hunt. Even though it wasn’t like the scale of the events we’d usually have, it was still deemed to be an event.
‘For those who came, a family as a pod were given a sheet of paper and they went around themselves to do it.
‘We’ve been open for over a month now and it’s only for walks and take away coffees, no different to any other weekend we have been open. What trigged the response from customers online was that the government said that heritage sites, open farms and zoos could open from April 26, but our own animal farm won’t open until that date’.
Sabine said that there appeared to be mixed messages on the guidelines, but that Wells did not breach any restrictions.
‘We had the gardaí out, and they’ve been out every weekend since we opened. We’re constantly talking to them and we’ve been informed that we are not in breach. We’re constantly monitoring the numbers of who is on site, keeping contact details and following all the guidelines. We wouldn’t be open if I thought we couldn’t be, but we’re open because of the woodland walks and take-away teas and coffees.
‘Everybody is trying to go by the guidelines to make sure all visitors are safe, but it’s not up to me to police whether the people coming are from within their 5K. That is up to the people themselves.’