DOVERCOURT'S Costa Coffee drive-thru is the only branch in Essex to reopen as lockdown continues.

A handful of the coffee giant's drive-thrus have reopened this week, with the branch in Williamsburg Avenue, in Dovercourt, being included in the list.

The drive-thru is one of 19 which are now back open, and it will be running from 8am until 4pm.

The next nearest Costa drive-thru to the Dovercourt branch is in Ipswich.

In an open letter, Jill McDonald, the chief executive of the chain, confirmed the reopening of a number of drive-thru stores, plus the introduction of a 'delivery-only' service at a limited amount of other cafes with Uber Eats.

Ms McDonald said: "Last week we made the decision to re-open two drive-thru lanes and two stores for delivery only in line with the latest government advice.

"The safety of our team members and customers is our number one priority and ahead of these stores re-opening, we put in place new social distancing guidelines, enhanced hygiene procedures and are providing teams with personal protective equipment.

"We have been really pleased with how well our stores teams have been able to adapt to our new ways working, allowing us to serve great coffee, as safely as possible.

"We have also received some great feedback from our customers and key workers taking advantage of enjoying a well-deserved coffee break whilst on essential journeys to or from work."

She added that drive-thrus are open to all customers, but are intended to offer critical and key workers the chance to enjoy a Costa on essential journeys.

"Whilst most of our stores remain closed we continue to pay our store team members 100 per cent pay and are incredibly grateful to those who have volunteered to work across these re-opening stores and to those who have been managing our first four stores this past week,"she added.