Where do you draw the line on what’s essential?

GEOFFREY PROUDLOCK, 77, has been behind the counter at hardware and furniture shop House & Home in Alnwick, Northumberland, for 60 years, although his daughter Sally, 49, runs it day-to-day.

‘We’ve been all-but closed for the best part of three weeks,’ he said.

‘I think it’s unfair that the Government have left the decision about opening down to individual owners. It’s a grey area.

‘Sally was too frightened to open fully, so instead she’s been opening the back door for a few hours to sell a bit of Calor gas, which lots of people use for cooking and heating around here.

‘But even then we had a complaint via Facebook suggesting it wasn’t “essential”, and a police community support officer came round to say the same thing, only to come back later and admit that he’d been wrong.’

All hardware stores have been classed as essential businesses, so are allowed to trade, and sell anything from their stock.

But Mr Proudlock said: ‘I think it’s very difficult in a hardware shop that sells virtually everything, from buckets and spades to knives and forks to work out what is essential.’

Recent guidance issued to forces by the National Police Chiefs Council suggested that buying paint and brushes from a DIY store was not essential.

‘Where do you draw the line?’ he added. ‘How you judge what is and is not essential when you are selling stuff across the board is very unclear.

‘I don’t think it’s fair to leave Sally to make that decision.

‘If it’s left to individual judgment then there is more scope for all sorts of people to challenge and criticise what the individual decides. More clarity from Government would help.’