The seaside amusement park’s employment costs have increased by 15pc after rises to the minimum wage and national insurance – adding £150,000 to its annual wage bill.

The Pleasure Beach employs up to 100 people during its peak months from March through to November, and needs a minimum of 60 staff on site just to be able to open and operate its 26 rides.

Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach's wage bill has gone up 15pc - costing an extra £150,000 a year (Image: Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach) And while the park has been reluctant to reduce its headcount, it has been forced to trim down its opening times – cutting staff’s hours as a result.

“Wages are one of our biggest expenses - if not the biggest - and as a company we can’t sustain these expenses year-on-year,” Albert Jones, managing director of the Pleasure Beach, said.

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The Pleasure Beach employs up to 100 people during its peak months from March through to November - needing at least 60 staff on site to be able to open (Image: Supplied) “We managed to just about break even last year, but with our expenses going up the profit margin is coming down.

“We don’t want to pass the cost on to our customers by increasing the price of tickets.

“We’ve reduced our opening times, so we’ve had to cut hours. Even an hour here and there over the course of a season adds up."

Albert Jones, managing director, pictured at the Pleasure Beach in 2009 (Image: Archant) The park uses a system to know the peaks and troughs of footfall and how many people are on its rides each day.

“There are certain times of the day when the rides are hardly being used, which is why we have trimmed back our opening hours because there is no point us being open when it’s not........

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