Editing London Zoo (section)

==Subsidised entry==
London Zoo established a Community Access Scheme in 2019 to provide 100,000 subsidised tickets to charities and groups assisting low-income families, older individuals, and people with disabilities. The scheme is intended to run until 2023.<ref>{{cite news| last=Wren | first=James | title=Community access scheme hands out subsidised tickets to London Zoo to charities in Camden and Westminster | newspaper=Ham & High | date=28 November 2019 | url=https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/things-to-do/21351459.community-access-scheme-hands-subsidised-tickets-london-zoo-charities-camden-westminster/ }}</ref> This started with a grant from the [[National Lottery Heritage Fund]] to convert the [[#Monkey Valley|Snowdon Aviary]] to a [[colobus monkey]] enclosure.<ref name=gould>{{cite news |title=Letting thousands of poorer families into London Zoo for £3 has changed us for ever|last=Gould | first=Matthew|newspaper=The Guardian | date=3 March 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/03/poorer-families-london-zoo-children-conservationists}}</ref> The scheme was successful and was later extended to allow anyone who received certain [[Benefit (social welfare)|benefits]] to buy tickets for £3,<ref>{{cite web | title=Community Access Scheme | publisher=London Zoo | date=16 February 2023 | url=https://www.londonzoo.org/plan-your-visit/community-access-scheme|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220135550/https://www.londonzoo.org/plan-your-visit/community-access-scheme|archive-date=20 February 2023}}</ref> about a tenth of the full price, leading to visits by thousands of families, and long queues which were controlled by requiring pre-booking and capping numbers. Some visitors who were not receiving benefits complained about the crowds.<ref name=gould/> 

{{As of|2023|2}} the Zoo was trying to ensure that the £3 tickets were not cannibalising demand for full-price tickets. However, they intended to maintain the £3 scheme if further funding became available. The director general of the Zoological Society of London described the result of the scheme as a "brilliant development", despite the queues and challenges.<ref name=gould/>