A letter from Southend-on-Sea Borough Council to retailers.
It has come to our attention that on occasion, face coverings have not been worn by customers in some local stores. As we continue to tackle COVID-19 both locally and nationally, we ask all businesses to ensure they are fully COVID-secure at all times. This will help stop the spread of the virus, especially as larger stores are more likely to have customers who are more vulnerable, susceptible to contract the virus in those settings and become seriously ill as a result.
As a retailer in the local area, please help us ensure we keep local cases down as much as possible. You can do this by ensuring your customers maintain space between each other, and wear a face covering inside the store unless exempt. We are working very closely with Essex Police to ensure that there is more compliance with the public health measures and you should contact them if your staff members are unjustifiably confronted by any customer. We can only bring the cases down and protect those who are vulnerable in our community by all working together.
We do appreciate this is not easy, and recognise the good work done on the whole by those in Southend-on-Sea to operate safely, but we ask now for everyone to double their efforts and work hard to ensure customers are keeping to the rules when in store.
We now have COVID ambassadors who are making proactive visits to businesses that remain open, to share advice and guidance on keeping safe. They will also respond to initial reports of any concerns and work with businesses to ensure they are COVID-secure. If you need to report a breach of COVID-19 regulations please call Essex Police on 101, or call the Council’s regulatory services team on 01702 215005 or by emailing your details and those of your concern to environmentalhealth@southend.gov.uk
We are offering open webinars to all businesses to discuss their challenges with a senior Essex Police officer; as well as Trevor Harp, cabinet member for health and adult social care; and the Director of Public Health. To book your place please email economicd@southend.gov.uk. If you have COVID-specific questions regarding your staff or premises, you can call our line from Monday 30 November: 01702 212497.
Yours faithfully,
Alison Griffin Krishna Ramkhelawon
Chief Executive Director of Public Health