Follow us on social ➜Fb.X.Insta.YT.

Bray’s Reopening Committee working to help Bray businesses bounce back safely

The Reopening Committee which was been established by Wicklow County Council to help co-ordinate Bray’s reopening met on Monday, 8th June 2020. During this meeting, the topics discussed included looking at a wide range of workable solutions so that Bray is a safer environment for the public and for businesses as Covid-19 restrictions begin to ease.

Council engineers have already started to survey the main shopping areas and have implemented some temporary changes on Novara Avenue and Florence Road to ensure a safe space for people to navigate and businesses to operate in.

Over the coming days and weeks, the Council’s cleaning staff will be cleansing high footfall areas around the town. Teams will clean street surfaces with inconvenience to the public and businesses kept to a minimum.

A free reopening pack will be issued to all town centre businesses. The pack will include information on:

  1. The remit of the Reopening Committee
  2. Shop Local First and Unity in our community initiatives
  3. The business supports available including the Restart Grant Scheme
  4. Return to Work Safely Protocol

Free standardised temporary ground graphics

Standardised temporary ground graphics will be included in the pack in order to help businesses implement queuing measures to encourage social distancing. We would urge all businesses to introduce these graphics supplied once received and refrain from implementing your own solutions.

The Committee is keen to work closely with the local business community, to find new and innovative ways to keep everyone safe in this ‘new normal’. As part of this consultation process, we are asking businesses if they have any ideas to submit them using the form below:

The Committee will look at the feasibility of implementing practical suggestions received.

Cllr Anne Ferris, Cathaoirleach of Bray Municipal District said, ‘We know it’s a challenging time, but we are calling on the business community to work together, be proactive, implement the safety protocols and let’s have unity in our community.’

About the Bray’s Reopening Committee

The purpose of  Bray’s Reopening Committee is to coordinate reopening planning, it will be working in partnership with local stakeholders including members of the Health Service Executive and An Garda Síochána to plan for a considered, responsible return to civic life which is vital to help to restart the local economy in the town.

Shop Local First initiative

bray.ie and braychamber.ie will continue to promote local businesses who are currently trading or planning on reopening safely under the Shop Local First initiative which was launched back in March. Local businesses can submit their reopening information using the form via the following link https://bray.ie/helping-bray-businesses-bounce-back/.

Bray’s ‘Unity in the community’ initiatives

There are several simple actions that have been implemented across the town to help drive a message of ‘Unity in the community’ during these uncertain and challenging times. They include:

  1. Temporary public signage to help pedestrians observe social distancing rules throughout the major public spaces in the town.
  2. Unity in our community’ flags are flying high on the seafront to show a symbol of local strength, unity and pride.
  3. Temporary ground graphics will showcase ‘Positivity Stones’ which aims to help promote positive mental health and wellbeing. The first positivity stones were added to Bray beach during Connect Ballywaltrim’s 24 Hour Youth Marathon last summer which was hosted by Connect Bray Neighbourhood Youth Project. 

COVID-19 information hubs

The dedicated COVID-19 information hubs aim is to help connect local businesses with customers, share some practical hints, tips, supports and links to help our town and community bounce back.

The hubs can be accessed via:

The ‘Unity in our community’ and ‘Bray bouncing back’ campaigns are supported by Bray Chamber, Wicklow County Council and Bray.ie. Bray.ie is a trading name of Bray Tourism.

The campaigns will be supported by public signage, radio and social media campaign.

Campaign taglines – ‘Unity in our community’ and ‘Bray bouncing back’

Join the conversation – Campaign hashtags are #Bray #UnityInOurCommunity #BrayBouncingBack #ShopLocalFirst

Latest news – Be sure to stay up to date by following bray.ie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bray_ie or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/braytown.