The owner of a Lichfield business has hit out at the Government after her salon was forced to stay closed due to the coronavirus crisis.
A number of companies will welcome customers again for the first time this weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson eased COVID-19 lockdown measures.
But Sally Wagstaff, from Xodos Aesthetics, said her Kings Bromley salon, which offers treatments such as hair removal, must remain shut – despite hairdressers, pubs and restaurants reopening from 4th July.
The former naval nurse said:
“As a registered nurse I have always practiced strict infection control procedures anyway, so to be unable to open at the same time as businesses like hairdressers can is hugely frustrating and bizarre to say the least.
“We have very robust systems in place to protect ourselves and our clients, yet despite all this we’ve been completely ignored as an industry – it’s just not logical and completely nonsensical to lump us with beauty salons and spas.
“Most of us are small business owners, and while it is vital to ensure that infection rates are reduced and everyone stays safe, it is devastating to our businesses to be ignored in this way.”
Sally Wagstaff
“It would be perfectly safe to reopen this weekend”
The mother-of-two has called for the Government to rethink the stance on businesses such as hers.
“It would be perfectly safe for my salon, and others in my industry, to reopen this weekend.
“Instead there are tens of thousands of aesthetic practitioners across the UK who, like me, who are being forced to remain shut.
“I would urge the Prime Minister to readdress his ill-advised stance.”
Sally Wagstaff
