After months of lockdown and only being able to half open the Watchtree nature reserve has announced when it will be fully functioning again.

The site has been open since early June but is not fully operational, and during the summer months the team have made use of the outdoor equipment.

A spokesman for the reserve, near Great Orton, said: “Through the summer we have been able to make good use of the outdoors with our burger shack and by operating our cycle hire entirely outdoors/online.

“However we have not been able to use the visitors centre including its toilets and it has been a real miss.

“There are a number of reason we have kept the visitors centre closed – we don’t own the building and reopening is dependent on an H&S agreement between Watchtree and Defra. At the point of lockdown we had just ripped out the floor as part of our gradual cafe refurbishment and the layout of the building isn’t ideal for social distancing.

“We have been working very hard to overcome all of these issues and we have a plan to reopen the visitor centre. The silver lining of all this is that we took the opportunity to completely refurb the cafe.

“From September 25 we will reopen the visitor centre for use of the toilets and processing of memberships.

“All being well, from the October 1 our new, fully-refurbished cafe will reopen for takeaway service and very limited indoor seating.

“As part of our Covid control we will have a team member meeting all visitors at the door and managing the number of people in the various areas of the building.

“All visitors entering the visitors centre will be asked to sanitise their hands upon entry.

“If there are any queues they will be outside.

“Any guests sitting in to eat in the cafe will have to provide details for track and trace.

“The signing-in procedure will not be returning for the time being. It may not return at all if we can find a way to accurately record visitor numbers without contact.

“Overall, we’re coming back in a measured and cautious manner.

“Many of our visitors are the most vulnerable members of our community and we share a responsibility to care and provide for them.

“We are incredibly grateful for the continued support of our visitors, volunteers and staff – you have all been amazing and we know you will continue to be.”