Felixstowe will be opening for business on Monday with a raft of measures being brought in to make customers and staff safe.

A survey by the Chamber of Commerce highlights how shops and other traders will be employing a range of measures aimed to minimise the spread of COVID-19 including introducing social distancing in their work place, adopting flexible working and rotating staff to meet guidelines.

In Felixstowe town centre Hamilton Road Shared Space will be made pedestrian friendly with traffic restrictions in place to assist people to observe social distancing rules and our businesses to trade effectively.

Deliveries will have access outside these times and emergency vehicles will always have access. Blue badge parking will remain available nearby on Cobbold Road and other locations."

Other plans include signage to help direct safe shopping and movement in key locations. Public conveniences will remain open with appropriate facilities, information and government guidelines on hand washing.

Visitors to Felixstowe are encouraged to use cycle, walk, or if arriving by car visitors to park in the nearest available car park as there will be restricted on street parking availability.

Felixstowe town mayor Mark Jepson said: "We will be pleased to see familiar doors opening for business once again and encourage our residents to show their support by buying locally. We will be introducing several changes in the Felixstowe Town Centre and seafront."

Any shop, trader, business or professional, who would like to advertise for free their new (or old) way of working, can join the Nub News Local List Directory, simply by going to the link, use the black Nub It button, and add your details. It only takes a few minutes and is easy to do.

Meanwhile, the thirteenth Suffolk Chamber of Commerce survey into how its members are responding to the spread of the COVID-19 virus shows an accelerating momentum in the numbers of businesses re-opening and staff returning to productive work.

Conducted earlier this week, the survey marks a break with its predecessors as new questions have been introduced that look specifically at how well prepared Suffolk Chambers are for the recovery phase.

The topics currently under investigation relate to re-opening plans and any health and wellbeing issues that might impact on their long-term success.

This survey, which drew in 124 replies, suggests that the overwhelming majority either have or are about implement their own return to work plans. 53% of businesses have now fully re-opened, with a further 16% of firms saying that there is nothing stopping them from trading.

Those companies that have re-opened are successfully employing a range of measures aimed to minimise the spread of COVID-19:

- 26% of business owners/ managers said they are feeling anxious and stressed at work, with another 43% feeling slightly anxious and stressed at work.

- 63% of the businesses reported that their staff are facing anxiety issues, 47% are stressed, 29% are facing sleeping problems and 27% of are worried about debt.

Paul Simon, Suffolk Chamber's head of communications & campaigns, said: "This figure suggests that the great return to work is underway, facilitated by an enormous amount of forethought and planning by business leaders during the lockdown.

"After all the issues – including access to cashflow – faced by Suffolk businesses over the last three months, this is incredibly good news for the future prosperity of the county.

"However, the worrying, and arguably not unexpected, reports of the impact of the lockdown on the mental health and wellbeing of business owners and their staff suggests that the recovery phase in Suffolk will only be sustainably successful if the county takes a strategic view to supporting all of its people of working age to adapt to the 'new' normal."