Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
It’s great to hear laughter around the place again
Joy as soft play opens doors to kids for first time in 16 months
Soft play facilities in Monklands have welcomed back their first customers in 16 months following the move to level zero of coronavirus restrictions.
Centres across Scotland closed in March 2020 ahead of the first coronavirus lockdown, and facilities in Airdrie and Coatbridge had remained closed for nearly 500 days, with Lanarkshire having consistently been in level two or above until last week.
Popular Chapelhall soft play Dinom8 reopened its doors at the first opportunity following the change of levels and was immediately inundated with youngsters excited to return to their much-missed play activity.
Owner Debbie Park told the Advertiser: “The response has been unbelievable – kids are just bouncing coming in as they’re so excited, and it’s really good to have laughter in the place again.
“We had our first birthday party on the opening day and the birthday boy had been told we were opening especially for him.
“There are wee ones coming in who have never been to soft play before or who were in a baby chair last time so they don’t remember it, and it’s been great to see them all enjoying themselves.
“Reopening day was 16 months to the day since we closed to the majority of customers, and it was really good to have everyone back.
“We had lots of bookings for the twohour sessions but we were also able to take some walk-ins too and we also have a lot of rescheduled parties which we’re going to honour – the public have been really supportive to us.”
Dinom8’s long-awaited young customers were welcomed back with balloon displays as the attraction opened its doors, and with new measures in place to reopen safely.
The centre has a new booking system in place and the now-familiar hand sanitiser points; while its ball pool has been removed to comply with safety measures, and a new mezzanine seating level has been created to increase social distancing between tables.
Debbie was previously manager of the soft play centre prior to last year’s lockdown; she then became its owner and took over its running last October while it was still closed, and recruited dozens of new staff members for the reopening.
She said: “Visitors will see some things that are different but mostly it should be the same as they’ll remember.
“There’s been a lot of preparation work done – we’d previously had three or four dates where we’d taken on staff and done training but then found out we weren’t going to able to open, which was very stressful.
“Everybody has been pulling together for the opening and we did a lot of hard work close to the time once the opening date was confirmed.
“It’s been great to be back and long may it continue.”