Borough’s shopping areas set to reopen next week

Published: 10 June 2020

We are working with Festival Place, The Malls and Basingstoke Together Business Improvement District to implement measures for the safe reopening of Basingstoke town centre next week.

On 25 May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans for non-essential retailers to reopen stores from Monday 15 June and as part of this, the council has been awarded £150,000 to introduce measures to keep shoppers safe.

Following the announcement, the council has been working with its partners in the town centre, as well as other shopping areas across the borough, to ensure a safe and pleasant experience for shoppers and businesses will be supported to understand the measures they need to take before they can reopen.

Shoppers will be encouraged to support local businesses while ensuring the safety of other visitors, business owners and their staff.

A number of measures will be put in place including walking on the left hand side of walkways in the Basingstoke town centre area, an increased cleaning schedule of public areas and extensive signage reminding shoppers what they need to do. The council is also working with partners to provide hand sanitising stations at the Top of the Town and in council-owned car parks.

Shoppers using council-owned car parks in the town centre are being urged to make card payments using the free RingGo app which is available to download from the App Store and Google Play.

There are a number of other ways to get to the town centre, including walking, cycling and public transport, with bus passengers encouraged to follow the social distancing measures in place at Basingstoke bus station and on the buses. Plans to provide additional temporary cycle storage in the town centre are also under way.

More information on the measures Stagecoach has put in place on buses operating in the borough can be found at www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/national/covid-19-travelling-safely#

More information about the measures being implemented at The Malls is at www.themalls.co.uk and in Festival Place is at www.festivalplace.co.uk