CALL FOR SCHOOL UNIFORM SHOPS TO REPOPEN
HUGE DEMAND FOR SCHOOLWEAR BEFORE CHILDREN RETURN NEXT WEEK
PARENTS are scrambling to get new uniforms ready for schools to reopen on Monday. Lockdown growth-spurts has led to many families needing to buy new schoolwear and shoes, but uniform shops remain closed as they are classed as non-essential.
One supplier told the Grimsby Telegraph they have had a “dramatic increase in demand” but frustratingly cannot open to help customers prepare for the return to school. And online purchases can take weeks to source and deliver because shops have been ordered to remain closed.
When schools reopened after the last lockdown, a large queue of shoppers formed outside of Grimsby’s Uniform Direct.
A spokesman for Uniform Direct, which supplies most of northern Lincolnshire school uniforms told the Grimsby Telegraph he had lobbied MPs to allowed their shops in Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Lincoln to reopen to meet the surge in demand. He said: “There has been a dramatic increase in demand.
“A lot of the children have grown and put on weight during this lockdown.
It would be good if Government or local authorities allowed us to open but because of the Covid regulations we are told we are non-essential. It is something we are raising with our MPs.
He added: “It is something they have clearly not gone deep into when announcing the opening of schools.
“In the first lockdown we were able to remain open. That created queues but we were entirely Covid safe. We had lot of people waiting outside but it meant we never had a single case. We have had almost zero income for months so it is nice to have online orders coming in again.” One parent said she had to wait a week until her daughter’s uniform arrived ready for school reopening on March 8.
She said: “A lot of parents have left it late and have not got ready in time. Mine arrived in time but I know a lot who thought they could just go to the local shop but they are closed. Ahead of the new academic year, education chiefs were urging schools to use “common sense” and be flexible over school uniform policies.
That came after parents faced queuing for hours outside Uniform Direct’s store in Victoria Street, Grimsby, where customers were restricted to “one in, one out.” Staff took orders from parents waiting outside.
In the week before school opening in September one mum, Marina Parker said she was in the queue for three hours to buy uniform for her son going to Havelock Academy. “There should be another queue for people who are just collecting and one for those ordering. “This has taken me three hours,” she said.