Council shuts down hairdressing shop over Covid-19 breaches

The Council’s Public Protection team has served notice of closure to Konain Hair Cutting on Whalley Range due to covid-19 social distancing failures.

The hairdressers was ordered to close from 12pm on Thursday, August 27^th.

The closure is in place for one month but will be reviewed every seven days. If the premises can show they are Covid-19 safe and can follow the guidelines fully they can be re-opened. The venues can appeal to the Magistrates’ court if they wish.

New enforcement measures are being used to temporarily close down premises which are clearly not Covid-19 safe through the new Health Protection powers. These are an important part of the Council’s efforts to prevent a full local lockdown, where every business would suffer more than they are now.

Councils were given these new powers in July to take action against premises that are not following the new restrictions, including warnings, prohibitions on numbers and opening hours and full closure.

The Council will continue to act when advice and guidance is not followed or ignored. This is the fairest and most effective way we can help control the spread of the virus and keep our borough safe, secure and open.

In order to re-open, provisions need to be put in place to satisfy Public Health and Public Protection that the owners have control of the situation and won’t commit further breaches that could put many people’s health at risk.

This order followes the first closures under the new powers which were Waheed’s Buffet and Banqueting Hall in Randall Street and Roberto’s Bar and Bistro in Richmond Terrace were shut down on Monday, August 17^th following reports of breaching the restrictions.

Both were re-opened after the first seven-day review as both premises demonstrated that they had implemented and would follow the proper guidelines.

Councillor Phil Riley, Executive Member for Growth and Development, said:

It is never an easy decision to temporarily close an establishment and it is always a last resort but we need to keep people as safe as possible.

We had no choice but to put a temporarily close down on Konains Hair Cutting after the reports on social distancing guidelines being breached which can put customers and staff at risk.

We need to get our case numbers down to avoid further lockdown measures and people need to make sure their businesses are following all the rules to make sure this happens.”