Popular Inverness children's attraction to reopen next month

ONE of the most popular children’s attractions in Inverness is set to reopen next month saving 14 jobs.

Frankie and Lola’s soft play centre beside the Asda superstore in Slackbuie plans to welcome back kids and families from September 14, after six months of lockdown.

Earlier this month, the sector was given the Scottish Government green light to restart indoor activities from that date.

Six full-time and eight part-time jobs have been saved at the multi award-winning centre, which opened in October 2014.

Company director Lisa Lugton, who takes a hands-on role in the business, said: “A couple of weeks ago, we were given the date by Nicola Sturgeon and that’s what we’re aiming for.

“That’s assuming, obviously, nothing changes in the interim.

“It has been a long wait but, thankfully, our landlord Asda has been absolutely superb and supportive in helping us through this period.

“Also, the furlough scheme has helped immensely. We’re really just looking forward to opening our doors again and bringing back our colleagues.

“We’re now receiving more and more social media messages asking when we’re reopening, which is lovely and also very reassuring for the future of the business.”

Frankie and Lola’s management plan to adapt the interior of the premises to ensure the highest standards of cleanliness.

She added: “It goes without saying, the health and safety of our staff and customers has to come first and we’re looking at lots of different things.

“We’re expecting guidelines from the government for soft play centres, but when we first set up Frankie and Lola’s we put cleanliness and hygiene at the forefront of what we did.

“We managed to maintain that level and now what we’re really doing is going up a gear.

“We chose to shut down before the actual lockdown order came in March because we felt it was the responsible thing to do.

“Everybody we could furlough, we furloughed, although one member of staff just missed the cut-off date, but will hopefully be rejoining us. We have a couple who are leaving to go to university, but all our full-timers and part-timers have been kept on, barring one who is off to become a school teacher.

“We’ve managed to save all the posts, six full-time and eight part-time, which is great.”

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