Businesses have been left heartbroken after being told less than 24 hours before reopening that they would have to wait another fortnight.
Bowling alleys, casinos and beauticians have been told they either cannot reopen or have to operate a limited service.
“It’s devastating news. We’ve been working for the past two weeks to get our sites ready and get staff back off furlough. Everyone was so excited to come back and then the news broke,” said Marina Pearce, operations manager for Superbowl UK.
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The team had been back at the site in Norwich’s Castle Quarter – as well as other alleys across the country.
Measures which have been put in place include alternate alleys being in use, sanitising bowling balls between every use and closing the soft play area.
On top of this sneeze screens have been put up at reception and sanitising stations have been put in place throughout the venue.
Ms Pearce continued: “We’ve got to update staff and customers we won’t be able to reopen tomorrow in the next couple of hours.
“We find it strange that as such a large venue, where we can control footfall from the front door, that we’re being categorised with nightclubs.
“I know that the issue people are worried about is bowling balls. But we have balls per lane which are sanitised after every use, and gloves to hand out so people can bowl in gloves if they would like to. We can’t understand why they’ve lumped us in with nightclubs.”
As well as bowling alleys, casinos have been told they cannot reopen.
Beauty parlours have also been told they will not be able to offer a full range of treatments – as they had expected to from tomorrow – as they will not be allowed to offer close-contact treatments like facials.
On top of this, weddings set to take place tomorrow previously had been told they would be able to have 30 guests from August 1.
This too has been revoked.
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