Much to the disappointment of people across town, Burger King did not reopen its Festival Place store earlier this week.

On Monday, the fast-food chain's press team sent out a release stating that "the locations of the restaurants that will re-open from June 1 are Basingstoke Festival Place SC and Fleet South Services."

This announcement was part of a phased re-opening plan, whereby the chain hoped that 350 stores would be up and running by the end of June.

But despite this announcement, the store did not open for business.

When questioned by the Gazette, a Burger King spokesman said: "The Basingstoke restaurant has now been delayed in opening, sorry about this and any inconvenience caused.

"The restaurant will be re-opening on Saturday, June 13 for home delivery and take away only.

"Safety is Burger King’s number one priority, and to enable restaurants to continue to re-open a number of procedures have been put in place to safeguard the health of both Burger King employees and customers, following detailed operational testing.

"These include additional PPE such as masks and gloves for staff, stringent cleaning measures, contactless delivery options via Deliveroo and Just Eat and all Burger King staff comprehensively trained on the Government’s social distancing measures – including how to run kitchens hygienically, whilst abiding by them."

Burger King have not responded to questions regarding the cause of the delay.