THE OWNER of a Romsey business has revealed her role play centre will reopen on Thursday.

Katie Betteridge runs I Wanna Be... role play village in Abbotswood Common Road, which, like other indoor play centres, has been shut since the end of March.

Now, the mum-of-two has spoken of the shocking moment the Government announced indoor play areas were allowed to reopen from August 15.

Katie, 47, said: "We are reopening on Thursday because there were a lot of things we needed to clean and work out, such as the new guidelines.

"We were very frustrated before Boris made his announcement [on August 13] that children's play centres could reopen, because if you call yourself anything else, such as a trampoline park, then you could reopen before us.

"I was not expecting to reopen until September since we were put into the same group as sexual activities for adults and nightclubs, which I don't think was fair.

"Originally, we had all of our MPs involved, including [MP for Romsey and Southampton North] Caroline Nokes, and one MP even said indoor play areas would not be reviewed until the beginning of October, so it was a real shock when Boris said we could open again."

Katie added, since she announced I Wanna Be... role play village was reopening, she has already had four parties booked for October, stressing she thinks it is because "parents want to get their children back to some sort of normality".

However, she said a maximum of "20 people", including parents and children, will be allowed to attend each session in a bid to comply with social distancing rules.

This is half the amount of people they would be allowed before coronavirus.

When asked what new rules will be in place for customers, Katie said: "We have got hand sanitisers everywhere and a reminder for parents to make sure they stay apart.

"Adult customers and children aged 11 and over will be required to wear a face covering before entering and keep it on until they leave, except when they are eating or drinking at their table, or when entering and in the play area.

"We have halved the toys in the village – while one half is being used the other half will be sanitised so we can rotate them.

"Our sessions will now last for two hours, instead of two and a half, to give us an hour to make sure everything is clean again before the next session."

To find out more about I Wanna Be... role play village and to make a booking, visit https://iwannabe.co.uk/.