Named and shamed! Pubs flouting virus lockdown
THEY ARE PUTTING LIVES AT RISK, SAYS CHIEF CONSTABLE
SCORES of pubs and shops across Greater Manchester have been reported to the police for failing to close in spite of the government’s strict coronavirus lockdown.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins has now named and shamed two for allegedly flouting the rules.
He said the The Shakespeare in Farnworth would have its licence revoked for allegedly letting drinkers in through the back door.
However, when the M.E.N. contacted the owners of the pub, they denied any wrongdoing. A spokesman for Hawthorn Leisure, which runs the pub, said: “There is absolutely no truth to suggestions that The Shakespeare in Farnworth has been serving drinks during the lockdown. Hawthorn Leisure has been strictly adhering to government guidance, and the pub has not been open since it shut its doors on Friday night. Furthermore, our manager and her husband are both selfisolating due to pre-existing health concerns.
“The only people to have visited the pub since it closed are people from Tung Sing restaurant, dropping off surplus potatoes and vegetables, which our manager has been cutting up for an old people’s home as part of a community initiative, a painter who is working on the toilets, and a dog walker.”
The chief constable also slammed the Billy Goat Inn in Mossley, Tameside.
They are among dozens of pubs and shops across Greater Manchester which have been reported to the police for failing to close in spite of the government’s strict coronavirus lockdown. Teams of officers and licensing officials will now be visiting any businesses thought to still be flouting the rules and ordering them to close. The chief constable told the BBC: “We will be dealing with them and they will have their licence revoked.
“I’ve got numerous examples of licensed premises that are continuing to do that and we will treat this really seriously and deal with them. “They are putting people’s lives at risk as well as being very, very selfish to the wider community. We are looking very closely at that.”
The chief constable said that when he went out on patrol on Gorton, he was impressed with the way Tesco was managing the lockdown, managing a queue of people outside the store and keeping people two metres apart from each other when they got inside. However, he said he went to another supermarket in Gorton, which he did not name, where the attitude seemed to be ‘what coronavirus?.’ Some people appeared to treat the crisis as ‘a holiday’ and were walking out of the store with trolleys ‘full of booze and charcoal,’ he said.
Some rogue drivers, because the roads were largely empty, were driving at ‘ludicrous’ speeds. One motorist was clocked down 75mph in a 30mph zone, he said, adding that on his way into work he had seen people approaching 100mph on the motorway.