BUSINESSES in Leominster are remaining cautious as they reopen, saying there has been a lack of guidance on how to do so safely.

On Monday (June 15) non-essential retailers in England were given the go ahead to reopen after almost three months enforced closures due to the coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Latest updates as more shops reopen in Herefordshire

Hannah Batty, of Bluebells Florist in High Street, said the firm had been fulfilling orders by delivering their bouquets, but they have now also reopened their store.

“It’s been quite weird, I think we had five weeks off, and then we were the first people off because we were doing deliveries.

"For us it’s been kind of strange because we’ve seen it absolutely dead in the town to see it slowly building up.

"It’s a bit dubious opening up, because before we had barricades at the door so people weren’t coming in and today it feels like we don’t really know if we’re doing it right because we haven’t had a lot of guidance."

The Government had published advice in the run up to the relaxation in the rules, saying shoppers should social distance, increase the cleaning regimes in stores and limit the amount of customers in shops at any one time.

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Other work the Government has done was praised by business owners in the town, with Rossiter Books' owner Andy Rossiter thankful for the Job Retention Scheme.

Unveiled by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in March, the Government pledged to pay 80 per cent of employees' wages who had been furloughed.

"We’ve had good support from our customers, they have rung in and emailed in and asked for books," Mr Rossiter said.

"What we’ve tried to do is remotely fulfil their orders, so we’ve been using wholesalers to send books directly to customers and not operating out of the stores."

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He added: "I think the furloughing and the grants have really helped to keep us ticking over, that’s been a godsend.

"We have 12 mainly part-time staff who work for us among the three stores and all of those have been furloughed until the last two weeks.

"It’s been good to bring a couple of those out of furlough so now it’s just a question of just trying to work out what the future holds, how people will respond to small shops reopening again, how safe they will feel, how many of them will shield themselves and not come out again.

"I didn’t think too many people would come, I think people might be cautious about how they approached it.

"I think people will cautiously get back into it and we’ll hopefully be here to serve them."