One sandbag has now been removed from York barbers blockade

The saga over the shut down barber shop in York has taken another twist.

As we reported last week, City of York Council had dropped two large containers of builders sand in the doorway of Q Gentlemen’s Barbers on Bishopthorpe Road.

This was to foil attempts to reopen the barbershop after it was forced to close over Covid rule breaches.

After ignoring numerous penalty notices and orders to close, police and council officers raided Q Gentlemen’s Barbers, evicted staff and forcibly shut the premises.

Three people were arrested.

The sandbags were brought in after the public reported attempts by the owners to go back in and reopen.

“We have therefore taken the step of placing sandbags across the door as an immediate short term measure to help prevent the shop being easily opened to the public again,” Matt Boxall, the council’s head of public protection, said.

However a resident told YorkMix that the top sandbag had been slit open by a knife on Friday. And now the top sandbag has disappeared completely.

A notice in the window points to the sandbags with the words, “Free rubble”.

There is no sign of anyone reentering the premises as yet.

Mr Boxall said the council had received “overwhelming messages of support for the action”.