ON Monday (15th June), non-essential shops were allowed to open their doors for the first time since March, following government guidelines. This means most stores are now open again at The Water Gardens.

Dionne Thomas, centre manager says “It was great to welcome back our customers on Monday! The safety and wellbeing of our shoppers, colleagues and retailers is of course our priority, and we’ve been working hard behind the scenes for the past few months to get everything ready “.

“We saw queues forming, specially on Monday, with shoppers eager to visit brands such as H&M, Sports Direct, JD Sports, TK Maxx.

“Customers have been following all the measures implemented on-site and footfall over the week as been encouraging.

“People will take some time to get used to this new way of shopping, but the feedback we’ve had so far from customers is that they’re just pleased to be out and shopping their favourite brands.

“And we were delighted to see people enjoying our gardens too!”