We have been and it is not "£2" or a cheap day out. We have had close animal encpunter experiences and the staff all seemed very pleasant and cared about the animals - did not see any animals in distress at all. This was 2022 onwards.
We had animal experiences at other zoos in the north west also and I would say that they are not out of step with other zoos at all. Not as flashy as Chester zoo (user to be a member there as that is our local one) but I would say Chester zoo is the gold standard of zoos but I though Cumbria Zoo was just fine.
There is a dispute with the land owners who used to run the zoo but were removed due to their poor management and a subsequent smear campaign by the previous owners and former employees though, so agree concerns should be properly investigated re animal safety but I would not assume that this is all true without a formal ruling based on my own experiences there which do not chime with the accusations made by disgruntled former owners and employees