Alton Towers to cut 70 jobs in shake-up following Smiler rollercoaster crash

Alton Towers is to shed as many as 70 staff following a review of the business in the aftermath of the Smiler rollercoaster crash.

The theme park - which employs 800 full-time members of staff and an additional 1,500 seasonal workers - confirmed that at-risk notices had been sent to those affected.

A spokeswoman said that between 60-70 redundancies would be made across all the park's departments.

She said the decision was an "incredibly difficult proposal to make" but was part of the park's long-term development plan.

The job losses come after the park operator, Merlin Attractions, was fined £5 million at Stafford Crown Court for a "catastrophic failure" of health and safety rules over last year's Smiler crash.

Sixteen people were injured in the crash and two teenagers - Vicky Balch, then 19, and Leah Washington, then 17 - had to undergo leg amputations.

Announcing the cuts on Monday, Alton Towers said a consultation was under way and the jobs would go ahead of the 2017 season.

The park is currently closed for this season and will reopen in March next year.

During the court case, the judge heard that ride engineers overrode the computer system which had correctly stopped the ride because they believed it was in error, leading to the crash.

Judge Michael Chambers QC, sentencing Merlin at the court hearing in September, said the "obvious shambles of what occurred" could have been "easily avoided".

The court heard that Merlin had seen a £14 million drop in revenue this year as a result of the crash in which 16 people were injured.