Yorkshire shopping centre imposes "capacity limits" for social distancing

A Yorkshire shopping centre has announced plans to resume normal trading from next Monday following the lockdown.

Frenchgate shopping centre, in Doncaster, has announced plans for how it will welcome back shoppers following the easing of government restrictions, including hand sanitising stations around the premises.

It will also be imposing capacity limits for its stores to ensure that social distancing is maintained.

Other measures include a one way and keep left system to maintain customer flow through some areas of the mall where space is limited, allowing customers to pass safely.

The centre has remained partially open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with a handful of essential stores and services continuing to trade.

From Monday (June 15) all non-essential shops and food outlets will start to reopen within the centre.

Paddy Mellon, centre manager for Frenchgate, explained: “We are thankful for all of our key workers, including our retailers, who have been committed to ensuring our customers and colleagues are safe.

“It has been well documented that the coronavirus pandemic has been hugely challenging to the retail sector.

“This applies particularly to retailers selling non-essential goods who have been forced to close their physical stores.

“Ensuring the safety of our shoppers and staff is of the utmost importance and we have made careful and considered decisions to introduce a number of responsible measures to achieve this.

“All stores will have a limited capacity to ensure everyone can adhere to social distancing.

“We are advising our customers that queuing is highly likely, and to be prepared for this and to plan their shopping trip.

“As a centre, we have upgraded our current footfall tracker system to allow for more precise, timely counts of footfall. By using this technology, we can control the capacity within the centre.

“We are very much looking forward to welcoming shoppers back to Frenchgate, but we must remain mindful that we all have to continue to play our part to ensure that we protect ourselves, fellow shoppers, centre staff and the wider community.”

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