Gyms reopen as play centres told to shut up shop
THE owners of Playtown were left angry and devastated after being told they must again close their doors under the latest change to lockdown restrictions.
The popular soft play centre, based at Ocean Plaza, must close its doors from Friday as the government attempts to standardise its restrictions for all areas classed as the most severe Tier 3 level.
It had earlier faced a backlash after ordering the closure of gyms in the Liverpool City Region (LCR), which includes Sefton, and worsened the anger by not applying the same rule to Lancashire and Greater Manchester when they were moved into Tier 3. Confusingly, it did include soft play centres in the closures in other areas, having not done so in the LCR.
Just one week after the initial restrictions were announced, the Government performed its latest U-turn and allowed gyms to reopen but ordered the closure of soft play centres at the same time.
Louie Gaffney, who owns Playtown with wife Tanya, said they only found out the news through media reports and a short Facebook post from Southport MP Damien Moore which said gyms were opening.
He said: “It’s disgusting. You get some fleeting hope, you get told one thing and then you can’t open. It’s so stressful. We’ve got Halloween, we’ve got people booked in and now that’s gone.”
The family business provided thousands of free meals to vulnerable families during the initial lockdown and had implemented a variety of safety measures to allow the business to reopen.
However, that period lasted just six weeks and the family business was left stunned by the new closure, which came just days after they were told they could stay open.
They are now planning to restart their takeaway food service which was launched in lockdown as a way to keep money coming into the business and keep staff, who are only eligible for two-thirds of their wages through government support, in work.
“Our main concern is paying the rent and paying the wages and we could do that, even with all the changes.
“We were surviving, we were going forward and then to get this news is shocking.
“We’re just a forgotten industry that the government seem to be picking on. We were the last to open and we’ve only been open six weeks and we have to shut again.”
He added: “We’re stuck, that’s the exact word. You can’t go forward, you can’t see a way to get to the light at the end of the tunnel.
“Before, we knew if we could get to a certain point, things could change but we don’t know what that is now.”
Playtown plans to relaunch its takeaway food service four days a week, with new menus now being created and Louie says they will keep persevering to survive the latest barriers, promising to “be back bigger and stronger”.
Before the Government decided that gyms could reopen, the owner of Southport’s longestrunning gym had warned that a prolonged closure could threaten the future of the business.
Wally Birch, who has owned Victoria Leisure since it was simply a squash club more than 30 years ago, said: Wally said: “We worked for three months to put everything in place.
The gym will now be able to reopen its doors from tomorrow.