In This Issue
Join in #FloralFriday today, celebrate re-opening and say thank you!
Orderly queues form as garden centres in England re-open
“Stay Alert” - make sure your customers and staff have a safe and enjoyable garden centre experience
Making garden centres friendly, safe and accessible again
Green light for garden centres to re-open on Wednesday in England - UPDATED - Comment from James Barnes at HTA and Alan Titchmarsh MBE
Dobbies’ Swansea reopened
Wales - Monday, England - Wednesday or June 1st?, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
St Peters staff in tears after council serves Prohibition Notice
Getting ready for business - feedback from Coolings, Planters, The Gardens Group, Blue Diamond, Green Pastures, Fron Goch and more
GrowNation Secures Free Social Distancing Help and Advice for Garden Centres
It was a Red, White and Blue #FloralFriday
Reopening your retail store: Step two – sanitation & portable hand washing/sanitisation stations
RHS Chelsea Garden Product of the Year to be judged during Virtual RHS Chelsea
GrowNation and Industry Partners Provide Click & Collect to Garden Centres
Violinist Rosanne Philippens embraces the sun in Keukenhof
Promising Digitalis Panther available now
Fiskars’ annual Happiness and Wellbeing Study
Free use of 16 different Covid-19 safety measure/social distancing posters
New online garden retailer Lockdown Gardener launches for home delivery
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
GTN Xtra - Send to all
The best of last week's
We need centres re-opened, says Sun legend Peter Seabrook
Tricia Cox co-founder of Glendoick Garden Centre dies
Safe Trading Guidance for all garden centres published by HTA
Reopening your retail store: Step one - signage & screening
James Stamp to the rescue
Record Number of Suppliers and Garden Centres Spread a little Floral Cheer on #FloralFriday
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Haskins Snowhill re-opens after £15m re-vamp
Pets Corner in garden centres re-opened
Dobbies’ podcast explores gardening for beginners
GrassSaver Soft Chews for dogs will help gardeners keep their lawns in pristine condition
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
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St Peters staff in tears after council serves Prohibition Notice

 

After receiving hundreds of plaudits from customers staff at St Peters Garden Centre in Worcester were left in tears after Wychavon District Council served a Prohibition Notice on the business following the re-opening of their food hall and pet departments.

 

Will Blake and his team re-opened just the food hall and pet areas of the garden centre last week after being given the go-ahead from their local trading standards office.

 

The re-opening gained hundreds of welcome comments from customers with much praise being lauded about the Social Distancing measures implemented.  See the video below.

 

 

However, during the week the Environmental Health Authority of Wychavon District Council, which includes Trading Standards, decided because St Peters main business was as a garden centre then they could not open and trade as just a food retailer, citing the Coronavirus Health Protection regulations.

 

Despite leveraging the legal assistance of the GCA, Will Blake and his team were unable to stop the council serving the Prohibition Notice and as a result the extremely disappointed team were told on Thursday evening that they would not be able to open on Friday or over the weekend.

 

"Yesterday we had one of our best trading days," explained Will, "our click and collect and delivery service was starting to pick up, but they told us click and collect is not allowed either.

 

"We've screened off all other departments of the garden centre and every customer was briefed personally on arrival as to what they were able to buy and what we were not selling in store.

 

"And all the while we have people trading around us, B&M, The Range, supermarkets, all selling plants and we know there are other garden centres around the country open and trading.with a smaller food offering than us.

 

"Let's hope some good news comes on Sunday night as we have a butchery full of stock which needs selling fast!"

 

 

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Robin Tuppen
Unfortunatley one will always encounter jobs worths. Common sense seems not to prevail with local authority emplkoyees on many occasions.