Wedding venues left in despair as Covid cuts bite

ROCHDALE wedding venue owners have spoken of their dismay after the government slashed wedding numbers to just 15 people in an effort to combat rising coronavirus cases.

The new rules are set to be in place until next March following the announcement on Tuesday (September 22).

Manager of Rochdale Sports Club, Gar Hunter, has had to postpone his own wedding until next June.

He had also just had the Sports Club’s function room newly refurbished in January for this year’s guests.

He said: “We have cancelled that many that it’s just getting scary. I was supposed to get married in November.

“It’s happened many people. to so

●●Rochdale Sports Club (left) and the Royal Toby (right) are among the wedding venues that have been hit by the latest coronavirus restrictions

“We’ve got a pretty full calendar for next year from April - providing we can.

“We have a lovely venue - we have everything in place, apart from the virus not being under control.

“We would not put a wedding on at the moment - our function room can hold up to 200 people.

“It’s not financially viable to open it for 15 people.

“Just to set up the bar and put staff on - the costs would outweigh what we might make with just 15 people. It’s not a viable option. Our function room is closed at the moment.”

Gar says the club has also been affected by the 10pm closure rule, where pubs and restaurants must close at 10pm.He added: “It won’t affect us in the week but on weekends it will.

“We will lose income - a lot of people haven’t come back - we have hundreds of members and I haven’t seem some of them since

March. We have been badly affected - we are hoping to survive until next year.

“Survival is the name of the game.”

Events coordinator at The Royal Toby Hotel in Castleton, Chelsea Buckley, has had to postpone all weddings until next year - and they will now be pushed back further due to the new rules.

She said: “Now we have got to go right back to basics and see what we can do.

“It’s now right down to 15 - I thought by now we might be back to some sense of normality but it seems to be going backwards.

“As a company we will have a review of what we can do. Everyone is in the same boat.

“Now it’s a case of contacting couples to see what they want to do.

“I imagine people will want to keep postponing.

“We are still taking bookings for next year.”