Children's play areas and public toilets are to be reopened from Saturday as the Covid-19 lockdown is eased further.

The facilities in Maidstone will be open again from 10am - but people are being asked to follow rules to ensure they can remain in use safely.

At busy times the council is asking parents to limit their children’s time on play equipment to 20 minutes to give everyone a chance to use the playgrounds.

Social distancing should also be followed - and if children are showing any signs of sickness they should not be allowed to use the play areas.

No food or drink allowed inside the playgrounds, and families are asked to use hand sanitiser or wash their hands before and after play to help keep the area clean for others.

Jennifer Shepherd, head of environment and public realm at Maidstone Borough Council, said: "It is great to be able to welcome back children into our play areas.

"As with all other areas of our lives that are slowly recovering from the lockdown there will be extra guidance that we hope everyone will follow.

"Unfortunately we are not going to be able to clean the play equipment as we have over 70 play areas to look after and cannot control their use, therefore we are asking parents and carers to take extra care when they are using them and wash children’s hands or use sanitiser before and after they use it."

There will also be hand sanitiser at the entrances to reopened public toilets and signs to remind people to socially distance and wash their hands.

The busiest toilets in Mote Park will be cleaned hourly, while all others will be cleaned twice daily.

Access to parks was restricted in March in an effort to encourage people to follow guidance on social distancing to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus.

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