It’s the activity of choice for parents on rainy days but now soft play centres are facing their own gloomy prospects. While gyms, pools, zoos and nurseries have re-opened, children’s soft play centres remain in lockdown, with no date on the horizon to re-open.

Daniel Zeichner MP visited Partyman to see all the covid secure measures the business have taken to keep mums, dads and kids safe. This includes investing in state of the art cleaning technology to coat all areas in anti-virus cleaner which lasts 30 days.

Mr Zeichner met the company’s big purple mascot Cosmo the Dragon and business owner James who took the MP through the revised operating procedures which have been signed off as safe by the Health and Safety Executive, Public Health England and the Government. Nationwide nearly 30,000 people have signed the #RescueIndoorPlay petition, calling on the government to make a decision on reopening or offer more financial support to the UK’s soft play centres. The Cambridge site alone employs 18 staff.

Daniel Zeichner MP said: ” I was somewhat surprised that soft play areas were not included on the list of premises allowed to re-open as part of the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions. They don’t seem that dissimilar to gyms and are important for children’s physical and mental wellbeing. I fear from discussions with soft play businesses that if there isn’t more support they may go out of business. There are no easy decisions to be made here, as no unlocking is risk-free. That is why it is vital that action taken is phased, managed, carefully planned and properly communicated, with scientific evidence as its basis and accompanied by a robust track and trace system.”