THE owners of a chain of garden centres in Northern Ireland have written an open letter to politicians appealing for them to be able to "open our doors fully".
Robin and Alan Mercer, who run Hillmount Garden Centre, which has stores in Belfast, Newtownards and Bangor, have been forced to remain shut since the start of the recent lockdown in December.
The owners say they are "acutely aware that the health of the Northern Ireland population should be the utmost priority for us all during the pandemic".
But they say they should be treated as other shops selling garden items.
"We are writing to appeal to you to provide provide independent garden centre retailers with the same privileges as stores including large multi-national supermarkets eg Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco and home improvement stores eg B&Q, Homebase and The Range, which are currently selling the products traditionally stocked by garden centres including plants, compost, grass seed, weedkiller, garden furniture and barbecues," they wrote.
"We would ask you to act quickly and either permit us to open our doors fully, so we can safely welcome customers into our garden centres to shop sensibly at social distance, or at least afford us the right to provide a click and collect service."
They said that their "peak spring season is upon us and you will appreciate our products are perishable".
"We would therefore appeal to you to once again put your trust in us, before the plants we have in stock die along with our livelihoods and while those stores as mentioned above unfairly continue to reap the rewards of trading when we cannot."
