Festival Place (FP) has introduced a traffic light system online to tell shoppers when the centre is busy.

The system tracks live occupancy coinciding with Covid-19 guidelines, which is displayed on the website as green, yellow or red.

The shopping mall welcomed shoppers back to its non-essential stores on June 15 after implementing extensive safety measures.

New signage encouraged shoppers to move around in one direction, reminding them to socially distance.

FP centre director Neil Churchill said: “The alert system integrates seamlessly with our footfall counters, is then analysed and translated onto our website.

“Our priority as always is the health and wellbeing of everyone in the centre – we must continue to look after each other. So, this new system demonstrates how customer volumes are being managed and allows shoppers to make an informed choice whether they visit us or come when it’s quieter.

“It also allows us to ensure our resources are allocated efficiently by alerting management and security when capacity is being reached or if there’s crowding in one particular area.”

The centre is open from 9am to 6pm from Monday to Saturday and 11am to 5pm on Sunday.