w/c 5th April 2021
The Prime Minister’s announcement earlier this week confirmed that stage two of the reopening roadmap would go ahead from Monday 12th April and came with a sigh of relief from business owners, furloughed employees and all of us that are itching to experience a setting other than our garden or the local park.
To add a joyful touch to the town ahead of reopening we are raising our annual bunting across the High Street as we begin to welcome people back once more but the scheme is just one of the activities that we have been working on this week. We have issued updated guidance from the Retail Recovery Partnership which provides stores with a host of recommendations and helpful links to assist with their safe reopening, and can be found in the “Coronavirus Support” section of our Southend BID website. The Street Ranger team have been providing floor stickers to help businesses with their queue management and offering advice to those that need it. Additionally we have also been working with the council to arrange for a hospitality briefing to help with reopening, dates to be confirmed, and have been pushing the reopening directory to promote venues.
There is now a new rapid COVID testing site along the seafront in Unit Twenty One to help keep everyone safe as we emerge from the depths of restrictions and start to enjoy all that our town has to offer again. You do not need to have an appointment to use this site as its purpose is for quickly testing those that are not showing any of the known symptoms such a temperature, new continuous cough or a loss of taste or smell. As we all begin to venture into businesses and mix with others again, it is important to get tested as up to one in three people are asymptotic – getting tested regularly will help keep virus rates down and allow more businesses to reopen under stage three and means less restrictions for us all.
If you’re heading out to support your local businesses next week then please Visit Southend Safely and remember to continue following the hands, face and space rules.
Comments