Discover Twickenham Covid-19 Business Support Plan

We recommended opening at 11am and closing between 5pm & 7pm to allow for stores to phase travel for employees and customers.

We also recommend specific hours for returns and refunds as other cities have experienced an increase in this during the first few weeks of reopening.

We recommend that your store has sufficient social distancing measures in place by managing your capacity in your premises.

We recommend that the capacity of your premises mirrors one person per four square metres. (i.e. if your premises customer floor space is 40m2, your capacity should be 10 people at one time).

For more information, click here for the British Retail Consortium’s recommendations for retail.

We recommend that you complete this five step document, sign, and place in your premises window to demonstrate what you are doing for your customers in stores.

To help businesses operate as efficiently and safely as possible, we have created a brief outline of recommendations for you to adopt when your business is in operation.

It is important to note that these guidelines are there as assistance for Town Centre businesses. Each business will have its unique challenges and decisions should be made to minimise the risk to your staff and consumers where possible.

• Businesses are recommended to run their external queue across the longest part of their premisesfaçade.
• Businesses installing floor vinyls or floor tapes must ensure the products are anti-slip laminate and abide by Richmond Council’s guidelines.
• Queues should not cross walkways and should run parallel to the business’ premises.
• It is the business’ responsibility to ensure the queues are controlled and not preventing members of the public from passing in a safe manner. We recommend operating with a member of staff whose sole responsibility is managing the queue at your busiest times.
• All businesses are recommended to discuss their queue plans with their neighbours (both sides) to ensure no crossovers with other businesses plan or public right of way.
• All queues should have a designated end; no queueing must take place after this end spot.
• Queuing must not take place across a road.
• If you are operating a food takeaway service through delivery services such as Deliveroo orJustEast, it is essential that couriers/drivers are not waiting in the same area of your queue.
• Businesses should consider their waste/recycling disposal and where they are placing this for collection to avoid any conflict with their queue.
• Businesses with more than one entrance should consider operating with a singular entrance and exiting to assist in the control of managing people both outside and inside your premises.
• Queues should not be positioned near live traffic i.e. roads. If they have to be, position away from the kerb edge.

To avoid attracting big queues, we advise that businesses do not host large sales and discounts in store but instead keep them online.

We recommend that the appropriate training measures are put in place around new rules, regulations, and guidance that your business and the government have in place. These may include:

1. Personal Hygiene guidance and assurance on what personal protective equipment (PPE) will be provided for staff
2. New processes around cleaning surfaces and contact points alongside payment methods
3. Recommendations of the safest ways to travel to and from work e.g. guides to safewalking, cycle routes/parking
4. Implementing flexible working hours where possible to avoid transport issues
5. Recommendations for staff well being during working hours and break times, such as promoting open spaces and parks near your business. We recommend that each premises should designate at least one Wellbeing Ambassador, for more information on this,please get in touch with us.