Sheffield cycle shop that is remaining open and keeping community on the move

Henry Nottage, owner of Tony Butterworth Cycles on Catch Bar Lane, Middlewood, made the difficult decision to stay open after prime minister Boris Johnson announced a lockdown on the country last week.

Although bicycle shops are one of few allowed to remain open Henry said he considered closing for safety.

It was encouragement from those including an emergency services worker, who relied on their bike to get home from late shifts, and someone who needed their bike as they came out of retirement to go back into nursing that made him choose to carry on.

Henry said: "The sacrifice we are making pales in comparison to those truly on the front line such as these fine individuals and my own wife (an infectious diseases nurse) - who I am very worried about but also immensely proud of. As such I see the work we do as contributing to us all pulling through this as a community and will continue to do whatever we can to help."

They are also offering free bike services for all NHS staff and teamed up with their suppliers to provide a free helmet, set of bike lights and high visibility jacket too.

Henry said they had a surge of customers when the government announced its latest restrictions – which only allow people to leave home for one form of exercise a day, to pick up necessities like food and medicine or to go to essential work which cannot be done from home.

The team has put many measures in place to reduce the risk of spreading the virus while they work – such as limiting the number of customers in the shop to one at a time, cleaning each bike when it comes in and before it leaves as well as regularly disinfecting the card machine.

Henry added: "The shop has got a nice community feel during the best of times but obviously we have had to stop doing things like giving people tea and coffee for the meantime and letting them sit in the shop for an hour and chat about a bike they bought off Tony 20 years ago - which is usually quite common."

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