Owners of Stamford Garden Centre and Wothorpe Nurseries delighted to reopen after coronavirus lockdown

Garden centre owners are delighted to be opening up again after six weeks.

Chris Isaac, who owns Stamford Garden Centre on Casterton Road, said it is now open seven days a week with all the necessary social distancing measures in place.

"We are very pleased that garden centres have reopened," he said.

"We had already created a one way system and taken significant measures that allowed for distancing and safe shopping in our food hall, for which our customers are very grateful. We have always acted quickly to follow government guidelines and will continue to do that for both the shop and garden centre."

Chris, who has run the centre for six years, added: "Our staff work very hard to guide people both inside and out and we supply PPE (personal protective equipment) as needed.

"Whilst it is always great to see customers in the shop and garden centre, we recognise that not everyone can, or will want to, come into the shop or garden centre. As with purchases from our food hall, we will continue to offer an email and collect service from the car park to support those people who need that help so they can obtain essentials and fulfil all of their gardening needs."

It comes after the Government announced on Sunday that garden centres could open nationwide this week as part of the gradual easing of the coronavirus lockdown.

Chris Porter, of Wothorpe Nurseries, said he, his family and staff had been working flat out to ensure the venue was ready for business from Wednesday.

They have been ensuring the site is ‘Covid-secure’ with tape marking out social distancing boundaries, hand wipes, face shields and other measures taken.

Father-of-three Chris, 58, said: “We’re delighted with the news and can’t wait to be open again.

“The greenhouse is choc-a-bloc with stuff - all we need now are customers - but not all at once!”

He added: “Plant-wise we are as full as we can possibly be and we’ve been telling people not to rush in as there’s plenty to go round.”

At the start of April this newspaper reported that Chris faced having to throw away £10,000 of stock after he was forced to close and the business was plunged into crisis.

But there was then a huge response from the community and he has been working non-stop to fulfil delivery orders.

“I’m actually worn out now!” said Chris, who is taking his four staff members off furlough.

* Do you own a garden centre? Let us know if you’re back up and running and we will let our readers know. Email steve.creswell@iliffepublishing.co.uk

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