Salon re-opening – an updated overview by “The Sunbed Association”
Hi Everyone, we hope everyone is healthy, keeping well and looking forward to salonsre-opening.
It seems a lot of confusion has emerged about information of when salons can re-open, just a quick thank you to all that have brought other salons that have already opened to our attention! Thankfully none that were mentioned were members, we managed to helpfully advise them about the offence they were committing by being open, and I bet you can imagine just the responses we got back. I urge everyone to continue to let me know if you are conscious of any salons that are open and stay alert as most if not all salons that we have contacted are now closed again to keep the public safe.
We now have exit policies from all home countries and Ireland, apart from Scotland. Presently only England and ROI have provided dates/provisional dates against the various stages of their exit plans.
Below is the exit summary and update on each country about our lobbing position.
ENGLAND (salon re-opening)
On Monday, a Roadmap was published which shows a pathway of the steps out of lockdown, linked to the new Covid-19 Alert level. Dates have been conditionally set against each Step, only to be applied if the applicable Alert Level has been reached.
Currently every salon is grouped for re-opening in Step 3, with the introductory date of July 4th.
From the beginning of lockdown, our lobbing with the Government has been focused on not being grouped with other salons for the main reasons that we are a non-contact service unlike hairdressers, beauty and nail salons which must all be closed proximity as they will need physical contact with their customers. It will also be easy to introduce social distancing measures as we can control the number of clients in the salon at any one time and introduce any other necessary measure.
We believe that tanning salons should be able to open with other non-essential retail outlets in Step 2 of the Roadmap with the opening date June 1st. Having received communication from the RT Hon Alok Sharma MP’s Office (Dept for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) instructing ‘Businesses like tanning salons’ are in Step 3 of the Roadmap of re-opening due to the indoor environment and closer physical contact. Immediately after hearing this we restated our position and questioned whether or not our previous points were genuinely understood and taken into consideration or whether we the tanning salons, we just simply grouped with other ‘salon’ business for their ease.
Whilst we continue with our efforts to push tanning salons to be part of Step 2 in the Roadmap with the provisional date of June 1st, we will currently remain in Step 3 of provisional date of opening July 4th.
SCOTLAND
Unfortunately, there is no details on potential re-opening date.
Scotland has not yet released any detail on an exit strategy; however, we have written to Ministers in the Scottish Government defining our position for them to take into consideration in Scotland’s exit plan.
WALES
There is no date available yet however, we are seeking confirmation for the re-opening at Amber stage.
The Welsh government distributed its exit approach today; Unlocking Our Society and Economy: Continuing the Discussion. It has a ‘traffic lights’ course out of lockdown with no assigned dates as yet for each stage. Under ‘Amber’ non-essential retail will open with physical distancing and they will be testing some personal services, e.g. hairdressing at this stage. Expecting tanning salons to be open at this point but we will be still seeking confirmation from the Welsh Government.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Requesting clarification and authorisation for re-opening at Step 2.
The Pathway to Recovery exit strategy was published this week by the Northern Ireland Executive. Stating exiting lockdown will be done in steps but there are no current dates for when the each step will happen. Non-food retail is identified in Step 2 and ‘contact’ retail is in Step 3.
As far as we are aware our interpretation of these steps is that tanning salons should open in step 2 as they are a non-contact. We have seeking clarity by writing to the Northern Ireland Executive, restating the reasons for tanning salons not to be congregated with all salons which are part of Step 3 and wishing verification that tanning salons can re-open at step 2 whenever that will happen.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
Seeking clarification and confirmation for salon re-opening in Phase 3.
The Irish Government published its exit strategy ahead of the UK countries. Their Roadmap for re-opening has five phases. In phase 3 non-essential retail businesses with street level access are scheduled to open which is the 29thJune. Phase 4 is to happen on 29thJuly with a gradual easing where hairdressers are listed to be able to re-open. We are in communication with the Irish Government about clarifying and confirming whether tanning salons will able to re-open in Phase 3.
Salon re-opening overview
We all want the salons re-opening as soon as it is deemed to be safe to do so for both staff members and their clients and please understand we will continue to do everything in our power to push for the earliest possible opening date with your country. If you haven’t yet written to your MP or TD asking them to participate with their Ministerial colleagues about the reasons why the tanning salons shouldn’t be classified with ‘salons’ in general, then please do so. We sent a outline email a few weeks back with specifics on how to find the email address of your local representative. Please drop me an email if you would like this re-sent to you.
The contemporary lack of clearness and understanding in unquestionably infuriating for all of us but we should remain being optimistic that our mutual efforts will accomplish our anticipated conclusion.
Have a good weekend everyone. Soon everyone will enjoy sunbathing again. Stay safe and positive.
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