The Abbey House Hotel is offering a lifeline to staff set to lose their jobs and couples facing losing out on their big day due to the anticipated closure of a nearby hotel.

General manager at the Barrow hotel, John Horton invited staff who have lost their jobs at the Chequers Hotel in nearby Dalton-in-Furness to get in touch to discuss potential opportunities.

He also said Abbey House Hotel’s dedicated weddings team was on hand to help find new dates for couples looking to rearrange their weddings due to the closure.

Up to 50 couples are thought to have been affected by the closure, while 30 members of staff are to lose their jobs.

It emerged earlier this week that Chequers Hotel is faced with administration after racking up debts it could not pay.

in-Cumbria’s sister title, The Mail, understands that the hotel’s general manager Charlotte Benn informed staff that the venue would be closing. It also claims that a source involved in the winding-up process believed the hotel’s bosses had approached rival firm Lucidity Group, the company which owns The Dunes, the Townhouse and the Stagger Inn to ask for assistance in securing employment for the 30 staff facing redundancy and fulfilling functions.

While The Mail also understands that most of the weddings may be taken on by The Dunes, and that Lucidity Group has offered to prioritise Chequers staff for its vacancies to mitigate any compulsory redundancies, Abbey House Hotel has also extended a helping hand.

Mr Horton said: “It is never nice to see a local business in trouble and the closure of Chequers will be a real loss to the area and to the local economy.

“We are always on the lookout for dedicated and hard-working staff and I would invite anybody affected by the untimely closure of Chequers, who is interested in working at the Abbey House Hotel and gardens, to get in touch with their CV and a covering letter which outlines the areas of work they are interested in.

“We certainly take no pleasure in what has happened, however we do recognise there will be a lot of couples feeling very anxious at the moment about their big day.

“We only have very limited availability over the next 12 months, but there are some windows of opportunity for people looking to change their venue with minimal disruption.

“We have already managed to help a number of couples to get their big day back on track and the team would be happy to support further brides and grooms.”