Worcester City Council is temporarily relaxing the enforcement of planning conditions restricting night-time and early morning deliveries to retailers of food, sanitary and other essential items.
The move will provide the retailers with greater flexibility and help them minimise disruption to supply chains amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The announcement follows a written statement to Parliament on Friday by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government requesting local authorities to make sure planning controls are not a barrier to food and other essential deliveries over the period of disruption caused by the outbreak.
Councillor Chris Mitchell, Chair of the Council's Planning Committee, said: "Worcester City Council will not be actively enforcing restrictions on timing of deliveries at any retailer of food, sanitary or other essential items, such as supermarkets and pharmacies until the end of May.
"We will then review whether to extend that approach, taking account of the progress of the coronavirus outbreak at that stage.
"We hope that this move will help supermarkets and other shops selling food, sanitary and other essential items to maintain their supplies and continue to provide our residents with the essential items they need.
"We will encourage shops to maintain normal delivery hours if possible, but where they have to take deliveries outside of normal hours we believe the need to ensure products are on shop shelves outweighs any temporary inconvenience."
