The owner of a Stirling play centre is calling for answers about why her sector remains closed as the country begins to re-open elsewhere.
Jennifer Stirling, who runs the Kidz Town role play facility in the city, is preparing for a likely June 7 re-opening date when Scotland moves into level one of Covid restrictions.
But Jennifer has joined many other softplay business owners in asking why other similar businesses – including trampoline centres – have been given the green light, as well as schools being returned to full capacity following the Easter break.
She told the Observer: “It was just really frustrating because we thought we’d be given the chance to re-open soon after the schools and nurseries went back.
“We’ve been given strict guidelines but we’re happy to adhere to them if it allows us to open, and to be honest, we had really good cleaning procedures in place even before Covid because we were working with children.
"We have two-hour sessions and then we physically close to clean down thoroughly and open back up so the block bookings never mix and we bought a whole box of duplicate equipment last summer and never had the chance to use it.
“All of the centres have been bending over backwards to comply with guidelines which are sometimes confusing and we just don’t get a straight answer.”
Jennifer admits that while her own situation isn’t perilous at the moment, other larger businesses in the sector are facing bills running into the hundreds of thousands from being mothballed since the beginning of the pandemic.
And she stressed the need for support to be in place for soft play businesses if the mooted June restart date doesn’t come to fruition.
Jennifer said: “There has been a lot of investment for no money and so they need to let us open because there are no grants any more and we can’t just be left with no funding.
“We’re lucky in that we have a small building and don’t have the outgoings that places with big climbing frames
have and it’s heartbreaking to see their challenges.
“People have been contacting me to ask when we can re-open because they’re desperate to give the kids something new to do and we would’ve been packed out for the Bank Holiday weekend.
“We’re happy that other places have been allowed to re-open but it feels as if we’ve been made a scapegoat because we’re not as big an industry.”
In response, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We do not underestimate the severe impact this pandemic has had on play centres across Scotland, and we expect them to re-open when Scotland enters Level One.
“This is dependent on continued progress on vaccination against Covid-19 and suppression of the virus.
“We have always said we will keep plans under review and accelerate the lifting of restrictions if possible, and we will continue engaging with the soft play sector on this.”
