EVERY supermarket in Southend is being visited four times a week by enforcement officers amid mounting Covid compliance complaints, it has been revealed.

Covid marshals are visiting each supermarket in the town to make sure each shop is adhering by the rules, as it emerged Southend Council has been “inundated” with complaints and tip offs surrounding businesses flouting the regulations.

The Echo was told council bosses have received more complaints about Tesco and Asda than any other store.

It has been suggested the problems at supermarkets stem from a failure to keep staff on the door, regulating numbers of customers coming in.

Martin Terry, councillor in charge of community safety, revealed the team of six community officers and ten Covid marshals is set to grow in the near future. He said: “A lot of the problems are common sense.

“Our officers are given a target of how many visits they make a day. They then go back again a few days later.

“If there are any problems, the shop will be given a warning, and then officers will go back two to three days later.

“Supermarkets are open a lot of the day, so please don’t go when everyone else goes.”

The Tesco’s store on Prince Avenue, in Westcliff, was forced to close temporarily earlier this month after the store “reached maximum capacity.”

Paul Thompson, who told visited the Tesco store two weeks ago, added: “It’s a free-for-all in supermarkets at the moment. There’s so many people in there.

“Is four visits a week enough at the bigger supermarkets? I think four will be too much at the smaller stores.

“There needs to be pressure put on supermarkets to put their restrictions in place.

We know they can do it as they were in place in the first lockdown. 

“In the worst stores, perhaps we need officers standing in there all the time. You can have nice queues outside, but the virus spreads inside.”