‘Thousands in the bin’ over new lockdown rules

The entire hospitality industry must close down for four weeks from Friday under the new rules, opening only for takeaway and delivery services.

Stevie Higginson, the chef and owner of the Square Bistro, said: “We’re shut here on a Sunday so when we come in here on a Monday, the first thing we do is deep clean the whole restaurant and then we start planning for the week ahead – orders, standing orders and everything is placed. Stock starts arriving from Tuesday onwards.

“It’s potentially thousands of pounds worth of stock that’s going to be in the bin.”

He continued: “This is the second time this has happened – and then again the start up costs when we do get up again. You’ve got the cost of restocking it and paying chefs to prep it again.”

Mr Higginson said that allowing restaurants to provide takeaway meals would not bring down the existing costs he and other hospitality business owners must face.

“We have a pop-up trailer that we bought in the last lockdown, and we do that currently every Friday anyway which we’re going to extend.

“But we have 20 staff – and the bills are based on people sitting in the restaurant eating, spending money.

“All the overheads are the same – rent’s the same, we’ve had no let up in all those kind of bills.”

He said staff would also miss the extra income from tips.

An Armagh bar owner, meanwhile, has hit out at public complacency about Covid-19 as fresh restrictions are introduced.

Joanne Shilliday owns the historic Hole in the Wall bar which only reopened last month.

She said: “We all as a country need to do what we have to do.

“I completely understand that there is so much complacency with other people who are knowingly walking around after having Covid tests and spreading, other people not wearing masks.

“I have asked people to leave the bar because they are not adhering to the rules.”

Pubs that do not serve food only reopened on September 23 following the longest shutdown during the pandemic.

Ms Shilliday said she had a fresh order of stock arriving yesterday and did not know what she was going to say to customers and others who relied on them.

“It is not about bars being targeted, but I do not know how we will survive.

“Everyone just needs to appreciate the reality of this.”

The old building, which dates back to 1615 and originally housed the first jail in Armagh, survived the bombings and fires of the Troubles, and she said she was determined to get through coronavirus.

“It is not just us, it is the taxi drivers, it is the old people that live on their own, that have no one else but us, it is our staff.

“It is mind-blowing this morning.”

She said some people had become flippant about the risks, adding: “What happens in four weeks time if the numbers have not dropped? Do we have to remain closed? There are no guarantees.”