HUNDREDS of people are planning a mass visit to Anna Ryder Richardson’s Manor House Wildlife Park next week to show their support for the attraction after its recent court case.

The zoo, near St Florence, has been in the headlines after the case at Swansea Crown Court where fines and costs of over £111,000 were imposed on the company run by Ms Ryder Richardson and her husband, Colin MacDougall for two health and safety breaches.

The prosecution was brought by Pembrokeshire County Council following an investigation after an incident in August 2010, when a tree at the park fell on a three-year-old boy and his mother.

Three formal complaints have now been lodged with the council by the company relating to the prosecution.

Now more than 330 people have joined a Facebook event page ‘Show your support for Anna and let’s visit the zoo’, which has been set up by charity fundraiser Jackie Meek, formerly of Narberth. The visit will take place on Saturday December 15th at 10am.

Dozens of encouraging messages for the park, a number voicing anger at the council’s prosecution, have also been posted by supporters on Pembrokeshire County Council’s Facebook page.

Mrs Meek, now living near Carmarthen, visited the park last year to receive a donation of 100 t-shirts which she took to children in Ghana on a fortnight’s voluntary work in schools and orphanages.

She said this week: “I and many other people have great admiration and regard for Anna and all the wonderful work she has achieved at the Manor House, and I feel we should do something to show our support. We want to show the world how much having Anna and the zoo here in Wales means to us all.”