WEYMOUTH town centre quickly filled up with shoppers - and sunshine - yesterday as many businesses opened their doors for the first time since lockdown began in March.

There were long queues outside shops including New Look in New Bond Street, Marks and Spencer and the O2 phone shop in St Mary Street - but despite the wait, the mood was mostly positive and people were cheerful - happy to be able to shop and browse once again.

One shopper, Mary Parfitt from Wyke, said: "I saw some clothes in Debenhams that I wanted to buy for my nephews and nieces before lockdown - now, nearly four months later I have just been back to buy them. It's lovely to see the shops reopen, such a good thing for Weymouth."

Chris and Theresa Lovelace - who live in Glastonbury but also have a home in Weymouth - said they had enjoyed being out shopping for the first time but thought there should be a clearer best practice system in shops.

Theresa said: "It's absolutely brilliant to be able to go back into shops and support local businesses, but they all seem to have different versions of how to put measures in place. Hopefully they'll soon be able to follow the same template.

"In clothes shops you're not allowed to try things on and they're reminding people not to touch the stock, but the queue system in some shops near the tills made it hard to keep a two metre gap at times.

"I'm not sure how they'll manage if it rains with people queueing outside."

Local husband and wife Mike and Mel Roberts said: "We think it's a good thing for Weymouth that shops have been able to reopen today - we've just been getting a few necessities as we've been doing most of our shopping online."

The town centre Park Street car park was almost full by mid morning. Some shoppers remarked that they felt anxious about coming into close contact with others.

Fred Wilde and Trish Hoskins of Weymouth said they were in town getting some essentials.

Trish said: "I've never suffered from anxiety before but the queues did make me feel a bit nervous about going into shops. I've mainly just come into town to pick up some essentials."

Fred added, "The shop staff have all made us feel very welcome - as well as it being important for shops to put measures in place, people also need to remember to stick to social distancing rules - it's about retraining your brain to stay two metres apart from others."

"I did feel a little bit uneasy - I think it's been especially difficult for some older people to get used to the changes."