TATTON Estate is offering an hour’s free parking at the Canute Place car park in Knutsford to support shoppers and businesses as lockdown restrictions ease.

The Estate is also seeking the public’s views on the potential use of part of the Heath next to the Hooked on the Heath fish and chip shop as a free parking area.

Dozens of town centre shops are due to reopen next week after the government gave the go-ahead for non-essential shops to reopen from Monday, June 15.

Cheshire East Council is putting in place a series of measures in towns across the area, including the temporary closure of some car parks and roads, to enable people to maintain social distancing.

A Tatton Group spokesman said: “Mr and Mrs Randle Brooks and the Tatton Estate are proud to be supporting Knutsford and neighbouring communities in many ways during these testing times.

“They recently made a major donation to the Cheshire Community Foundation, which was match-funded by the Steve Morgan Foundation.

“They have decided to give an hour’s free parking in Canute Place car park, with immediate effect, to ease access to essential facilities whilst maintaining social distancing, as well as encouraging the local communities to responsibly make use of the local businesses which have started to reopen during this challenging climate.

“The Estate is also happy to potentially offer a free parking area on the Heath, next to Hooked on the Heath. We have seen an increase in the use of the Heath for exercise and dog walking, and would like to make it and local facilities more easily accessible.

“We welcome any comments about the idea and any associated management measures before we progress it.”

Comments can be left on the Tatton Group Facebook page.

Cheshire East Council said the measures it was introducing in town centres were temporary, and were being introduced after careful consideration of its town centres.

A spokesman said: “We believe it is necessary to act in areas where footpath are narrow, footfall is high and shops have limited internal space. In these areas we expect greater need for queuing on street when shops reopen.

“We have decided to close roads to traffic to make more space for pedestrians and shoppers to ensure safe social distancing is possible.

“These measures are intended to help residents and businesses come out of lockdown safely, ensuring public health is protected and enable social distancing to take place, and shoppers to queue safely before entering shops on the high street.

“We will maintain essential access for servicing businesses and residential properties throughout the closures. Emergency vehicles will also be able to access any roads that are closed at all times.

“The closures are ‘Except Cyclists’ which means you can cycle down road that are closed. Most bus routes are unaffected by the closures, as they are ‘Except Buses’.

“Where businesses require deliveries, we ask traders to endeavour to limit most deliveries to hours outside the core hours of 9am to 5pm.”