Trade associations BAGMA and the AEA wrote to government last week, raising awareness of the importance of commercial groundscare as we move towards possible emergence from lockdown.

The jointly written letter has been sent to Rt. Honourable George Eustice MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and has also been copied to the Rt. Honourable Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The associations have also made some other organisations involved in the sports turf business aware of what they have done and say they have their support.

Director of BAGMA, Keith Christian told TurfPro, "Essentially we wanted to raise the awareness of the role that our land based engineering industry plays in the maintenance of key equipment for parks, sports grounds, highways, public spaces, golf courses and amenity areas during a potential further lockdown or an exit strategy from a lockdown.

"We have outlined the essential service provided to those with a duty to remain open and service their clients that are responsible for ensuring the safety and accessibility of these properties and facilities. Our aim is to ensure that traditional grass areas, sports turf areas and public open spaces are maintained in such a way that they will be ready for use when circumstances allow.

"Also we would like to see our member businesses, and the LBE sector, classified as essential to ensure the equipment is available to allow this to happen."

Current government guidance does allow most of the land based engineering industry to remain open and operate a limited service based on social distancing guidance