The Donkey Sanctuary has issued a statement in response to reports that several members of staff at its Sidmouth headquarters have been made redundant in recent months.

A member of the local community – who is not a current or past employee – contacted Sidmouth Nub News to say they knew of a number of people who had been made redundant.

We asked The Donkey Sanctuary for a comment, and they did not deny that some redundancies had been made.

A spokesperson for The Donkey Sanctuary said: "The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted our operations and has also drivennew ways of working requiring us to think differently about how we should allocate our funds and resources, if we are to better meet the need for our work going forward.

"As a result, The Donkey Sanctuary has undertaken an organisational review into how we can streamline and integrate our operations in order to reach and help more donkeys. We have undertaken a formal consultation process which is approaching conclusion.

"For the wellbeing of our staff and to maintain integrity of process we can't comment further at this stage."