JUST 12 DAYS TO SAVE CHRISTMAS
Two million leave Level 4... but tough restrictions remain Smaller businesses plead for shoppers to spend locally
BUSINESSES have only 12 days to save their Christmas as more than two million Scots are released from the toughest lockdown measures.
Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the 11 areas in the top tier of the Covid prevention restrictions will drop to Level 3 at the end of this week.
From 6am on Friday, ‘non- essential’ shops in these areas, including Glasgow, can reopen for the first time in three weeks, with other Level 4 curbs on businesses relaxed from 6pm the same day.
But each of the areas, as well as seven others which will remain in Level 3, will still face tough restrictions, including a ban on non-essential travel to other council areas and an alcohol ban in pubs and restaurants, which will need to close at 6pm.
It means 3.8 million Scots will continue to face Level 3 curbs for at least another nine days, with the hospitality industry saying there was ‘little cheer’ in the announcement.
Only three of the ten areas now in Level 3 – Angus, Falkirk and Inverclyde – will drop to Level 2, letting pubs, bars and restaurants open for food and alcoholic drinks served with a meal until 8pm.
The decision not to relax restrictions in more areas despite falling case numbers was branded a ‘bitter pill’ for businesses, while Miss Sturgeon faced criticism for abandoning the health indicators which are used to make decisions.
But businesses welcomed the confirmation that the 11 Level 4 areas will drop to Level 3, which gives them 12 full days of trade in the run-up to Christmas.
Andrew McRae, Scotland policy chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ‘ Today’s changes give many Scottish smaller firms an opportunity to salvage some trade ahead of Christmas. But it will have been for nothing if people across the country aren’t prepared to support the traders on their doorsteps.
That’s why we’re urging the people of Scotland to use the 12 full days from this weekend to the 25th to support their local and independent businesses however they can.’
Two areas currently in Level 2 – Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders – will drop to Level 1.
Miss Sturgeon said there is hope that the arrival of the coronavirus vaccine marks ‘ the beginning of the end of this pandemic’.
But she warned the winter will be ‘especially tough’, adding: ‘Unfortunately, restrictions on how we meet and interact will also remain essential for some time yet.’
She said that prevalence of the virus in Level 4 areas has ‘fallen significantly’, while the number of cases per 100,000 people across the country in the previous week fell below 100 ‘for the first time in a long while’ last Friday. But she said progress ‘ can very easily go into reverse’ and did not rule out areas such as Glasgow needing to reenter Level 4 in future.
The decision to keep Edinburgh in Level 3 was made despite it recording just 68 cases per 100,000 people, well below the national average. Miss Sturgeon said: ‘A move to Level 2 in Edinburgh would mean opening up significantly more services in Scotland’s second biggest city in the two weeks before Christmas. That move would carry significant risk of increased transmission.’
Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tories’ group leader at Holyrood and MSP for Edinburgh Central, said some decisions were a ‘step forward’ but added: ‘For those businesses in local authority areas where the number of cases and every other indicator gave them reason for hope that they should have been placed in a lower tier, but are being told today that they won’t be because it is Christmas and they might get too much trade, it is a bitter, bitter pill.’
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said ‘the numbers seem to have been abandoned in favour of judgment only’.
David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: ‘Permitting shops in the eleven local lockdown areas to effectively reopen a day earlier than planned is as welcome as it is sensible.
‘It should help spread out shopper numbers.’
‘It is a bitter, bitter pill’