‘Name and shame Crawley businesses not following social distancing’

The leader of Crawley Borough Council has encouraged people to name and shame businesses that are not following social distancing rules.
Crawley pavement signage. Pic Steve Robards SR2006152 SUS-200615-105707001Crawley pavement signage. Pic Steve Robards SR2006152 SUS-200615-105707001
Crawley pavement signage. Pic Steve Robards SR2006152 SUS-200615-105707001

During his weekly online Q&A, Peter Lamb said the council had very few powers to enforce the rules and suggested consumer pressure might be the answer.

He said: “If a business is not following the rules, we can send environmental health people round to have a look but it’s very unlikely that they’ll be able to take any real enforcement action.

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“While [the rules] were brought in, there really weren’t many powers given to councils or even the police to actually enforce any of the rules.”

Peter Lamb, leader of Crawley Borough CouncilPeter Lamb, leader of Crawley Borough Council
Peter Lamb, leader of Crawley Borough Council

Mr Lamb said the environmental health team could check to see if any real risk was being posed but otherwise would only speak to the manager to ‘persuade them to behave more reasonably’.

He added: “Frankly I think naming and shaming is probably one of the easiest ways of dealing with this and applying a bit of consumer pressure to get them to follow the rules that I think we all know are in the public interest.”

A second question called his attention to County Mall’s food hall and claims that some vendors were not follow Track and Trace procedures.

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The system should see everyone who eats at the food hall leave their contact details so that, should an outbreak of Covid-19 occur, they can be contacted and told to isolate.

Mr Lamb said he would pass the concerns on to the environmental health team.

He reported that the vast majority of places he had visited had got Track and Trace up and running well, adding: “Most places are, it’s just a few bad eggs that we’ve got to try and deal with at this point.

The next Q&A session will be held on Thursday (September 10) via the council’s Facebook page. Following that, they will be held monthly.

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