REDDITCH Borough Council will temporarily relax the enforcement of planning conditions restricting night-time and early morning deliveries to retailers of food, sanitary and other essential items.

The move will provide the retailers with greater flexibility and help them minimise disruption to supply chains amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Reacting to Government guidance, the council will not be actively enforcing restrictions on timing of deliveries at any retailer of food, sanitary or other essential items, such as supermarkets and pharmacies until the end of May.

It will then review whether or not to extend that approach in light of progress of the coronavirus outbreak.

A spokesman said it is hoped that this move will help supermarkets and other shops selling food, sanitary and other essential items to minimise disruption to their supply chains on which communities depend.

The council will encourage shops to maintain normal delivery hours where possible and to take due consideration of residents when conducting ‘out of hours’ deliveries.

It is considered that the interests of residents in having essential supplies in shops outweighs any temporary inconvenience that might be experienced if some deliveries are outside normal hours.