TRADERS across Halstead have expressed their delight at finally being allowed to reopen next week.

For some businesses which have struggled over recent months, the easing of lockdown is a lifeline.

Halstead mayor Mick Radley said: “At long last, we have the easing of some of the Covid-19 restrictions.

“This will bring much needed relief for some of the businesses in Halstead enabling them to reopen and start trading once more.

“It will also enable Halstead residents and visitors to restart doing more of the things we previously took for granted.

“During this period, it is really important that we all support our local businesses and help them recover from what must have been a really difficult time for them.

Halstead Gazette:

  • Halstead Mayor Mick Radley

“Let’s all hope this will be the beginning of a return to some normality, and we can all enjoy the best of what Halstead has to offer and rekindle and enjoy the strong community spirit.”

Doors are also reopening at Halstead Antiques Centre, the new Dirt Devil Detailers car wash and Gosfield Lake Golf Club.

The hair and beauty sector is not one I frequent personally very much myself – big advantage of having almost no hair – but it is a really important sector - MP James Cleverly

Despite the threat of closure, the Oak Rooms spa is urging residents to help support them as they reopen next week.

A spokesman said: “We will open, and we are lucky to be accessing the reopening grant which is a lifeline to our next chapter – surviving and staying.

“We desperately want to stay here and continue doing what we do here at the Oak Rooms but we need your help.

“We are in effect starting again.

“We had only been open a couple of weeks before the first lockdown and a couple of weeks in between the last ones so it’s not going to be easy.

“Everyone says ‘save local’ yet all we have seen opening these last few months are big corporations, and they have all made a fortune while thousands of small businesses like us, whose business is their lifeline, have been left to crumble.

“If you truly believe in ‘share local, save local’, please help us and all of the wonderful small businesses in this wonderful place.”

Halstead Gazette:

  • MP James Cleverly is urging residents to support local shops

Halstead MP James Cleverly urged constituents to support hairdressers and beauty salons in a video message.

He said: “The hair and beauty sector is not one I frequent personally very much myself – big advantage of having almost no hair – but it is a really important sector.

“Something in excess of 50,000 businesses, employing more than 300,000 people and contributing in excess of £6billion of gross value added to the UK economy.

“So, if you look as if you have been dragged through a hedge backwards, or your normally neat and tidy haircut is now reminiscent of Samson before Delilah took the shears to him, then get back out there, get a trim, and help support this really important part of the UK economy.”