Heads of Ayr Farm Park have announced that their soft play facilities will remain closed, even at level zero, due to the 'unique situation' their facilities fall under. 

The outdoor attraction is situated on the outskirts of Ayr and had closed its indoor soft play facilities nearly 18 months ago.

Due to the design of the park, it would mean that 80 per cent of soft player users would be turned away, despite having a valid ticket, and despite exploring options, could not find a solution to accommodate within the current restrictions. 

In a statement, the Farm Park said: "After the most recent Scottish Government announcement and following today’s drop into Level 0, we have extensively reviewed the current closure of our indoor soft play area. After much consideration, we have unfortunately decided that our soft play area will remain closed for the time being.

"This disappointing decision to remain closed while other soft plays reopen has been a very difficult one to make, however, it is in the best interest of our visitors and staff members safety. Soft plays can currently only open if they are able to follow the Scottish Government guidelines and we don’t believe in our case this would be possible.

"Our soft play is in a unique situation where it is located within an outdoor attraction with very different restrictions and after reviewed the guidelines we have been unable to find a way to operate with them while synchronising with our outdoor areas.

"As a mainly outdoor attraction, we are allowed far more people out in the park than we are in the soft play, therefore due to a much stricter capacity indoors we would have to turn away around 80% of our visitors from using the soft play despite having a park ticket. We know that this would only create disappointment to what would otherwise be a great day out for our visitors. We don't want to disappoint anyone, so we are going to hold out a little longer and hope we can run things a little more smoothly in the autumn.

"August will mark the 18th month of our soft play being closed – fingers crossed we won’t have to wait much longer until restrictions are lowered to allow soft plays like ours to reopen their doors. Until then, the rest of Farm Park will remain open and provide families with some amazing outdoor adventures."