Hundreds of people have headed to Burnham-On-Sea’s first car boot sales for the first time this weekend since the lockdown was eased amid extra safety measures.
Burnham’s BASC Ground is hosting the popular outdoor sales every Friday and Saturday – with a raft of extra Covid-19 safety rules in place to protect buyers and sellers.
Talking to Burnham-On-Sea.com, organiser Paul Goodyer says he “treats safety very seriously during these worrying times” and has spent over £2,000 in introducing the extra measures.
“We have spent several weeks working on the guidelines to make it as safe as possible for buyers and sellers,” he says.
“In order to restrict the number of sellers to a maximum of 120, rather than the usual 240, sellers are required to book online in advance. This helps ensure we can keep a proper level of social distance between the sellers.”
“They also no longer set-up in back-to-back rows on the BASC Ground. They are now in separate lines, further apart, with no double backing. By holding the car boot sales on Fridays and Saturdays, it also spreads the demand from sellers.”
“Everyone that comes onto our car boot sale site must use the hand sanitiser – we have several santiser stations in place at the entrances with marshalls checking that people use them when they enter the site.”
“We have a one-way route in place around the field to maximise social distance among buyers and enable them to keep a safe distance.”
“We are also asking that buyers have the correct money to avoid our team handling money – we prefer a £1 coin and a 50p pence to come onto the site.”
“Buyers are also being asked to only touch items that they want to purchase – and to ask the seller to check an item if they want to see it before touching.”
“We also have more portable toilets at the site which are cleaned through the day, including touch points. The food units also have extra Covid meaures in place with limited numbers of staff. The car boot staff are all wearing face masks as much as possible.”
“We also have more marshalls in place to help us hold the events safely – these are being provided by Silver Spur Events. These will be particularly usrful over the busy summer holidays period.”
“That said, the best way this can all work is by people using common sense and respecting each other to keep everyone safe.”
He adds that the market is not capturing contact details of members of the public who attend the sales. “If there were a positive Covid case, we would issue a statement on social media and on local media to ask people to contact the Track and Trace service.”
The car boot sales are held every Friday and Saturday at Burnham’s BASC Ground from 12-3pm until the end of September, subject to weather conditions.
“This year is our 12th year here in Burnham at the BASC Ground – the sales have grown in popularity over the years and we hope that by putting these proper safety measures in place, people will come back this summer.”
On Saturday, the event saw 57 sellers and around 300 members of the public attend as buyers. “It was a good start to the season given the conditions,” adds Paul.
Brad Loveridge of Silver Spur Events adds: “Safety is the top priority and we have been working on this for weeks. It’s great that the opening events have gone well with lots of positive feedback from people who came along.”
