Stump Cross Caverns: Owner of 500,000 year old caves shares horror as energy bills soar to £7000 a month

Lisa Bowerman of Stump Cross Caverns in the Yorkshire Dales has said her entire business model could need to be changed if the bills continue to rise.

The caverns include caving experiences in 500,000 year old limestone formations, a cafe and a cinema and Ms Bowerman has run several fundraisers to keep the business viable after the coronavirus pandemic.

She has urgently asked an electrician to assess if any mistakes have been made, but has been told by British Gas they’re confident the bill is correct.

Ms Bowerman said: “We’re going to start turning things off. We’ll have to look at the whole place and say ‘what needs to be turned on’ and switch things off that don’t. It will mean looking at the entire business model.

“It’s just weird how it’s just happened.

“We might have to turn power in the kitchen off and do something different - change the menu, do takeaway snacks rather than hot food.

“We’re going to have do a traffic light system. Green, use this. Amber, be careful. Red, absolutely not.

“It’s just another storm.

“We’ve tried to help customers where we can. We’ve taken 25 per cent off admission to allow families to have that day out. But if that’s our energy consumption, we can’t stick our heads in the sand.”

She added on social media: “How do they expect you to survive? I knew it was going up but they really are crippling everyone.

“I always try to see the positive in every situation but I’m struggling with this one.”