Published: Wednesday 10th June 2020 | 10.36am
Cannock Chase Council is able to support retailers planning to re-open from 15 June with practical advice and information on how to manage customers queueing and entering the premises and protecting retail staff with appropriate hygiene measures.
The Council’s Environmental Health Teams have already been working with food premises providing a take away service and are on hand to support all non-essential shops across the District due to open soon.
Government guidance allows non-essential shops to open from next Monday which will include a whole range of retailers with the exception of personal care services such as hairdressers, nail bars and tattooists.
To help businesses work through government guidance around COVID-19 and the documents available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19 a specially prepared checklist from the HSE has been produced to help businesses navigate the guidance and ensure they have covered the key elements.
Once the checklist has been completed and businesses have implemented the necessary controls, they are encouraged to sign and display a statement in their shop windows confirming they are COVID-19 secure having completed the HSE’s Five Steps to Safer Working Together checklist. Customers will then have confidence that they can shop safely which will be good for them and those businesses.
In the first instance businesses can contact the Health and Safety Executive at www.hse.gov.uk or call 0300 003 1647 for advice regarding the five steps. A helpline has been specifically set up to support businesses. They can also seek advice and support from the Council’s Environmental Health teams who will be supporting small businesses while they are out and about in the District or the teams can be contacted at environmentalhealth@cannockchasedc.gov.uk to request advice.
Furthermore, the Council’s Economic Development team is also available to advise on available support and funding and can be contacted at econdev@cannockchasedc.gov.uk
Councillor Gordon Alcott, Portfolio Leader for Town Centre Regeneration, said: “This careful and considered approach to easing the lockdown will help both retailers and customers who have either been through a difficult trading period or been unable to buy goods they would normally purchase in person.
“We want to assist retailers to put in place the best possible measures to ensure the safety of their staff and their customers. The intention is to strike the right balance between being vigilant about the virus and helping the economy to recover. Our officers are particularly keen to support local independent or smaller retailers as many larger national retailers will be already putting in place plans for re-opening. We hope that people with abide by the social distancing measures that have been put in place and use their local town centres.”
As part of the re-opening of non-essential shops, Cannock Chase Council has been awarded £89,622 by government through its Reopening High Streets Safely Fund open to all local authorities. The Council will be committing this money to marketing promotions to stimulate trade in town centres and to pay for signage required to manage visitors to its town centres to navigate people safely around, as more shops open up.
The government funding is part of a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) grant which applies from the start of June.
Photograph:
Councillor Gordon Alcott, Portfolio Leader for Town Centre Regeneration.