Grantham's B&Q on London Road is back open as part of a nationwide re-opening.

The retail chain opened it's doors yesterday for its 288 stores after being closed for several weeks since the start of the lockdown.

However, store bosses stress that their wares are classed by the government as 'essential' and measures have been taken to ensure the safety of staff and customers.

Among the measures, limiting the number of customers in a store will take place, and there will be strict social distancing measures such as sanitiser stations for trolleys and people being told to say 2 metres apart, with arrows also guiding this.

Checkouts will feature perspex screens and will only accept contact less payments.

B&Q colleagues are positioned around the store, inside and out, to help remind everyone to stay safe and follow social distancing guidelines.

Due to the bulky nature of some of the items available for take away on the day, B&Q is allowing shopping parties of two people so that they can self-serve larger items.

B&Q CEO Graham Bell stressed that the safety of staff and customers is paramount.

He added: "Whether shopping in our stores or online, we continue to ask all our customers to follow the Government's social distancing guidelines and to shop responsibly only when they need to."

Customers can also place orders at diy.com for a limited range of products for Click+Collect in store as well as for contact-free home delivery.

The re-opening has had a mixed response on social media.

While some told the Grantham Covid-19 Support Group Facebook Page that they feared the re-opening of such stores might bring a return of the pandemic, others were happy.

Keily Wright said: "They have done an amazing job setting this all up by far one of the best set up/organised stores in town."

Susan Kent commented: "They did the right thing by closing until they could be sure they had everything in place to protect their staff and customers. Anyone who has ever had a sudden plumbing emergency will know just how essential they are!"