I have just visited my local Sainsbury's convenience store and watched as all 12 customers who entered the store within five minutes failed to use hand sanitizer. When I suggested to the manager that they move the sanitizer to a more prominent position he stated that the company were happy with the position of the cleaning station, and that it was the customer's responsibility to use sanitizers. Six of the customers then went on to use the self service checkouts. With West Quay now open, each driver on entry to the car park will be pressing the same buttons for the entry barrier. When I spoke to management at West Quay before the second lockdown about my concerns they said that they cleaned the buttons periodically. With 700 car park spaces that are filled a few times each day there is a good chance that someone with the virus has touched the buttons before you have. A better solution to completely cut down the amount of virus contact points would be to have number plate recognition on entry, or better still, keep the barriers raised and allow free parking. With the country just coming out of the second national lockdown I am by no means convinced that all of the general population will follow the most basic measures to stop the spread of the virus and until they do we are just kicking the can further down the street.

Kim Murphy

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