PREPARATIONS are being made for reopening Tavistock town centre to shoppers as the country crosses its fingers that Covid-19 is on the retreat.

With the Government allowing non-essential shops to open from Monday week (June 15), Tavistock BID (Business Improvement District) is leading the charge on behalf of traders, working with council officials on how to manage ‘pinch points’ in the town.

BID manager Janna Sanders will be walking the town’s shopping streets with county council highways officers to establish how to make sure people keep their distance while queuing outside shops.

It is also proposed to introduce a 10mph speed limit in the town centre.

Some disabled parking bays are likely to be temporarily suspended to allow shoppers to use them to walk around queues of shoppers outside shops.

Markers are to be put on the pavements outside shops to mark the two-metre distance people are being asked to maintain. And the BID is organising graphics to place on the pavements to give shoppers something to read while they wait.

Janna said: ‘We are planning on having graphics with facts about the town. They will be put in places where queuing could be a bit of an issue to encourage people to queue.’

She said she was also looking at creating an app which people could download on their smartphones to allow them to reserve a place in a queue while they were elsewhere in the town. She said, however: ‘My concerns about that is that not all of the population are going to have access to an app’.

The BID is also working with the traders they represent to source visors, masks and other PPE (personal protective equipment) for staff so they can work safely. It is anticipated that shops will only be able to allow in a few customers at a time.

Janna added: ‘We have surveyed our traders on what is important to them in terms of recovery and there are two stages. The first is the reopening of shops and social distancing and making consumers feel safe. We have got a couple of weeks to put all these social distancing plans in place. Then we are looking longer term at how we revitalise the high street and encourage people to come back.’ These plans include setting up eCommerce for Tavistock shops via the Visit Tavistock website, recognising that shopping online will remain important beyond lockdown.

Meanwhile, Tavistock Pannier Market, run by Tavistock Town Council, remains closed for the time being but will hopefully be open again by early July. Town clerk Carl Hearn said: ‘As an old and large building with multiple and daily changing business offers, an historic fabric and many access points the pannier market represents one of the most complex premises in the town to reopen.

‘We know many people are looking forward to returning to shop there and the council is working with traders to develop compliant measures to support safe reopening. Subject to Government guidance we hope that the market, appropriately reconfigured, will be in a position to open early next month.’