Adhering to Updated Coronavirus Advice

Adhering to Updated Coronavirus Advice

As part of a nationwide effort to reduce the possibility of spreading coronavirus, the Government have created a set of guidelines with which we should all abide. This includes clear guidance on self-isolation, staying at home and away from others, and schools remaining open for those children who absolutely need to attend such as the children of key workers.

After asking certain businesses and venues not to open for trade from close of trade 23 March 2020, reviews have been held in subsequent weeks with updated guidance where applicable. Many businesses and their premises must remain closed to the public for the foreseeable future. If the laws regarding these closures are not adhered to, those responsible for the breach may be issued a prohibition notice, a fixed penalty notice, or prosecution.

Certain businesses are allowed to remain open and operational in line with social distancing guidance. Takeaways, deliveries and online retail may also continue. Storage and distribution facilities, including delivery, drop off or collection points where they are on the premises of any of specific businesses are allowed to continue trading.

Both permitted businesses and those forced to close are in increasing need of storage facilities.

We Are Still Open

As we mentioned above, storage facilities are amongst the selection of permitted businesses to remain open. There are a number of reasons for this:

• People may have already sold their houses, terminated a lease or are partway through the process of moving house. In such cases, it can be considered essential that you keep the process going. As a result, many people need to use storage.
• Key workers frequently have essential items stored at our sites and require access to them.
• We are taking all measures possible to create a safe, secure environment for you to visit if essential.
• We want to enable our customers to access their personal possessions, some of which they may need during isolation.
• Many of our staff, administrators, managers and directors are working from home. They are able to oversee the company’s activities whilst following government guidelines.
• All our normal day to day services are operating as normal and accessible to customers at these times.
• We are practised in working in a safe and secure manner.

If you are visiting our Manchester Trafford or Stockport sites please practise social distancing. If there is already someone unloading or loading where you need to be, please wait until they are out of the way.

Our objective is to keep our storage units open for your use but with temporary adjustments to our opening hours and operational methods. This means that our customers can continue to benefit from our secure storage units. Some of our business customers are storing medical and other essential frontline supplies, and the NHS and other public sectors are amongst our customers. We are also assisting food retailers and wholesalers requiring increased storage of dried foods.

In addition, we have customers who have had a sudden need for short term storage triggered by the recent lockdown. These might be businesses whose retail outlets or distribution centres have been forced to close and therefore have an emergency need for the storage of their stock. Others are using our storage services as mini logistics for e-tailing and online selling of essential goods.

There is also continued demand for self-storage from domestic customers, people continue to have emergency needs for secure storage space, possibly triggered by the loss of accommodation, cancelled university courses, postponed house moves and delayed refurbishment projects.

However, we have to balance the needs of these customers against the regulations required to limit the spread of Coronavirus and that is why we have implemented the onsite and staff measures to limit any contact between our staff and customers.

When attending our storage facilities, please adhere to the following guidelines:

• Please clean your hands before and after visiting the site. Equipment such as keypads and trollies are at the highest risk of contamination so we will provide a means of cleaning them on site.
• Please follow all guidance from the government and World Health Organisation (WHO).
• Please do not visit the site if you are showing any of the symptoms relating to Coronavirus or if you have come into contact with anyone showing symptoms relating to the virus.
• If you have booked a self storage unit and the date you require the storage changes for any reason, you can change it at any point. Please contact us and we’d be happy to do that for you.
• Our sites continue to operate fully and we are well prepared.
• You can contact us by email seven days a week. Our staff are still working, albeit from home and able to monitor CCTV, open and close gates and doors electronically.

We would ask our customers to be patient – and to respect and observe our new notices and requests relating to the adjustments we have had to make to our current operations.

We will continue to monitor advice from the UK Government and Public Health officials. We will follow all guidelines to ensure we are doing everything we can to continue to provide a safe environment for all our valued customers and employees.