It’s tough for pubs as they look to reopen their doors
ON Monday, Wales’ battered hospitality industry will once again try to pick itself up, reopen and welcome back customers as they fight to keep their businesses going and their staff and guests safe.
But the welcome is not as unequivocal as you might expect – while reopening is definitely considered a good thing, the intricacies of how they will do it, and whether it’s too soon to be doing it, are among the things being spoken about in the industry.
From Monday, up to four people from different households can meet in a pub or restaurant (if all customers are from the same household that number can be higher).
Liz Silva, who along with husband Andy Hooker runs the Bush Inn in the Vale of Glamorgan, is trying to balance the continued survival of her business with the safety of her staff, customers and family.
“I’m nervous, I’m scared, I’m anxious,” she said.
“I would have liked for the firebreak to stay a little bit longer, not in line with the English one, but at least a month so we could suppress the virus as much as possible so when we did come out of it we could start to rebuild and, most importantly, avoid another firebreak. If we come out too soon we are not going to get Christmas.”
Liz added that conflicting messages added to the confusion over the current coronavirus landscape and made her nervous.
“On Monday Mark [Drakeford] addressed us in the briefing with no statistics over where we were with the virus, but he did tell us that we were reopening , therefore it’s deemed safe enough to do so,” she said.
“Twenty-four hours later, Dr
Goodall [Andrew Goodall, chief executive of NHS Wales] addressed us with a very different and very grim picture saying we’re not even going to know the result of the firebreak for at least another two to three weeks.
“That’s all well and good, but opens us up into an environment where cases are still rising. I think anybody with any kind of sense wonders are we going to achieve anything in 17 days (the length of Wales’ firebreak lockdown)?”
Liz also says the most recent message from the Welsh Government was similar to the confusing one from Boris Johnson in March, when he advised people not to go to the pub but did not order them to close.
“We feel like we’re being asked not to open but we’re not being told to close. It sent shivers down my spine,” she says.
Liz said that while the pub would of course abide by restrictions, specifics still remained unclear and she is anxious about the reaction of the public.
“We will obviously go forward with the new restrictions and everything we’ve done at an additional cost, when pre-firebreak we were operating at no more 20/30% of what we normally are this time of year,” she says.
“Going forward that’s not going to change. But the general public, all they will be told is ‘oh everything is opening up again and there are a few restrictions’.
“It’s us that has to deal with the fallout of people. We were subject to, not a large amount, not really nice reactions. There was a bit of talk on social media of us taking it too seriously. So we can’t win.” Caitlin Morse, who coruns Y Ffarmers and The Druid’s Inn, near Aberystwyth, agreed that the firebreak should have lasted longer. “We’ll see if we stay open now until January, that’s a good thing,” she said. “I don’t expect that there won’t be another lockdown, but I do hope it’s not the two weeks before Christmas. It would have been better to do a four-week firebreak now and be open until December.”
Caitlin echoed that the amount of responsibility put on publicans and their staff is often stressful, despite the majority of customers being regulars and understanding.
“It’s really stressful,” she added. “They put a lot of responsibility on us. As landlords we are very capable of controlling our environment, we’ve spent a lot of money on screens, we know what we’re doing.
“If you’ve got a group of four and everyone has to provide ID, we have to enforce all these rules. Here we have a friendly clientele on the whole, but in this trade we have been spoken to like dirt and we have to look after staff a lot, lot more – it’s very tiring.”
At the Otley Arms in Treforest, Gabrielle Otley has the same concerns: “When people booked tables I had to check they were from the same household, it is a hard line to walk. All of our customers are just really nice people and that’s what you want in this game.”
But this week with the four-household-table rule it suddenly got more complicated: “Within an hour I had a message on Facebook asking if they could book two tables of four next to each other and that’s frustrating then as they were already trying to get around it. I find that difficult. My feelings were: ‘How am I going to police this?’”
But Gabi is happy with the restrictions coming to an end on Monday, adding that if everyone sticks to the rules, the situation will be over quicker.
“We were comfortable with the restrictions as they were but we have to adapt to survive, get us through to Christmas.
There will still be people going around and checking we are sticking to the rules, they can still give you a closure notice, you are better off being safe and sticking to the rules so we can all get through this together,” she said.
Also happy the rules are being eased for groups is Jonathan Bassett, who owns five pubs around Newport and
Cardiff. He said: “The worst thing out of all the conditions was the one household, it made us completely unviable. Nobody goes to the pub with their family to watch the football, they go with their mates.
“But when he announced the four households on a table of four, that was good.
“But I’m a bit concerned that he thinks people go to the pub to eat. People go to the pub to drink and we hope they eat. We are wet-led.”
For Jon, perhaps one of the most heartwarming things to come out of the rule-of-four is that pub regulars can now sit together. His pubs include the Queens Vaults, College Tavern and Four Elms in Cardiff, the Golden Lion in Penarth and the Carpenters and Pen and Wig in Newport. “Looking at the old guys who can’t sit together, that’ll be good for them,” he added. “These are fellas for whom 10am is our 2pm because they come out early, they could be retired or lost their wives and they come in early in the day because they don’t want to be out late.
“To see them not being able to sit by each other... how do they feel? To sit with three friends will be great for them, especially with how the past six months have been.”
We feel like we’re being asked not to open but we’re not being told to close. It sent shivers down my spine
Liz Silva
We were comfortable with the restrictions as they were but we have to adapt to survive
Gabrielle Otley