The management team at Five Valleys shopping centre has announced that the main lift is now back in full working order.
The lift, which serves all levels of the centre, has been subjected to repeated vandalism making accessibility around Five Valleys challenging for some customers.
Despite an investment of over £120k and best efforts to source parts and get the repairs made quickly, the lift has been out of service for a significant period and has been met with frustration by both management and shoppers.
The lift is now fully up and running with additional CCTV fitted to deter future acts of vandalism.
The centre has also gone one step further by investing another £80k into a second lift, which is currently being designed and will be installed later this summer.
Centre Manager, Jack Simpson, said: “We have been subjected to a series of pre-mediated acts of vandalism on our centre lift causing our shoppers a great deal of difficulty and frustration, which we have shared.
“These latest repairs required specialist parts to be fabricated abroad leading to a longer wait time than any of us were happy with.
“We want our shoppers to know that we take accessibility for our customers very seriously and that a lot of thought and investment has gone into implementing steps to avoid this level of disruption again in the future.”
Five Valleys is looking forward to welcoming customers back to the centre as it rolls out its busy events calendar at the centre’s new outdoor courtyard.
For more information about what’s happening at Five Valleys visit www.fivevalleysstroud.co.uk
