New Felpham launderette will provide 'essential service' for community and scrubs for NHS staff in Chichester and Littlehampton

Those were the words of James Glue, operations and marketing manager at Home and Dry Chichester, which is set to open a new launderette in Felpham on Monday (May 4).

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the team behind Felpham Launderette still wanted it to open at Grassmere Parade 'for the good of the community'.

"To serve the people in Bognor, as an essential business, we have put sweat and tears into pushing the building of this new venture," James said.

"We took over the premises on March 1, just before the coronavirus broke out. We have managed to get people to fit it out which took a bit longer than planned.

"We didn't want a high street launderette so we went for a community one. It's very residential and modern. We are an essential service and it's what people need."

James said Felpham was chosen as the location because of 'popular demand' and will fill a 'massive gap'.

He added: "The previous one in Felpham closed just over a year ago.

"No one had anywhere to go to get their laundry done, especially the elderly and vulnerable who live in residential homes.

"It's a family-run business and it's a difficult time but we've taken a risk to open during the coronavirus. I can't imagine anyone else has done that so it's breaking the mould.

"We are not making any money out of this, we are just doing it to keep the business going, keep our customer base and offer the same service to the community."

Providing and cleaning scrubs for NHS staff

The new launderette will also be producing and cleaning scrubs for staff at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester and Littlehampton Health Centre 'as a donation to the community'.

NHS staff can also get a 50 per cent discount on other laundry needs.

James said: "We have an onsite seamstress who has produced 30 sets of scrubs for St Richard's and Littlehampton, all for free. We've dropped them down and they are very grateful for that.

"We are also cleaning used ones as well rather than throwing them away and burning them which is what some places are doing. It increases the turn around of products and they can reuse them.

"We had planned for a big open day but now we just want to let people know that we're open and can be used as a service as most places are closed."

Whilst social distancing measures continue to be in place, the launderette is encouraging customers to use its collection and delivery service.

"It defeats the object if we have 20 people standing inside that can't keep two meters away from each other," James said.

"We want people to know we're open but realise the collection and delivery is one of the key services as we want to keep people safe."

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