A POPULAR fast-food restaurant has reopened to the public today with new safety measures in place after closing its doors at the very start of the coronavirus lockdown.

McDonald's, located in Clacton town centre, has been shut since March, as a result of the Covid-19 crisis and the company's dedication to keeping its staff and customers safe.

Since then, the two-storey eatery's large glass windows and doors, which have been on the receiving end of anti-social behaviour in the past, have remained completely boarded up.

These have now been removed, however, and the restaurant is once again welcoming back hamburger fans living in the town, but the experience will not quite be the same.

Ensuring Government guidelines are followed, social distancing measures will be in place, which customers will have to adhere to, and the number of customers allowed inside at any one time will be managed.

Diners will also be required to sanitiser their hands as they enter, and will have to order their food via the My McDonald's app.

Their meals will then be brought to their tables by staff, in a bid to keep customer movement around the restaurant to a minimum.

McDonald’s franchisee, Craig Newnes, who owns and operates the restaurant in Clacton's town centre, said: “We are delighted to be reopening the restaurant. 

"We have missed all of our customers during the time we have been closed and we cannot wait to invite them back into the restaurant from Thursday."

The reopening of the Pier Avenue McDonald's comes nearly three months after its sister branches - drive-thrus in Hartley Brook Road and Weeley - switched the grills and fryers back on.