The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Sands café couple tell of fears for business as Sturgeon tees up new restrictions.
Business-owners across Tayside and Fife will be waiting with trepidation ahead of the announcement of further lockdown restrictions today.
One pub owner in Dundee said the sector is being “killed off ” by measures, and that further restrictions could spell the end.
Stephen Leckie, chief executive of Crieff Hydro and chairman of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, said local lockdown restrictions would cost his industry tens of thousands of pounds.
He added :“It’ s like waiting on a sentence, we’re waiting nervously.
“In my business there’s been no cases in the staff or customers. In Scotland there’s been an odd case of a member of staff having it, so we are a safe industry.
“When Aberdeen went down it cost us and the industry tens of thousands of pounds because you have to ring people and say ‘you can’t come, you’re in the wrong postcode’.”
While the first minister dispelled the notion of a “circuit breaker” lockdown yesterday, she did not rule out further measures.
Jackie Nicoll, co-owner of McDaniel’s, on Whitehall Crescent, Dundee, blasted restrictions already in place, and said further ones could be dire.
She said: “10pm closing is stupid. People are just spilling out of pubs and going to house parties, queuing in taxi ranks or at takeaways without social distancing.
“In the pub there are things in place like hand sanitiser and table service. It’s not the pubs that are carrying it, so why restrict us more?
“I am hoping there is not another lockdown, they’re killing off businesses. Further restrictions will just make it worse.”
Drew Montgomery, who runs Roe- Bucks Barber Shop on St Andrew’s Street, Dundee, is also worried more restric tions may befall his industry.
The city ’s longestrunning barber shop has seen a downturn since reopening earlier this year after lockdown.
Mr Montgomery said: “We had a couple of good weeks when we first reopened, but after that things have been quiet.
“If I was closed for another lockdown, I don’t know what I would do.”
In Perth, The Bunker boss Colin Bell celebrated his business’ s first anniversary last month, having endured a turbulent debut year in the Fair City.
He said furlough, or something similar, would be required if the hospitality sector shuts down again, adding: “We’ve kept plodding away, but there’s no end in sight.”
Meanwhile, CriDo’s owner Cristian Cojocaru says support in the form of another Eat Out To Help Out scheme would be the best way to help revitalise business after a potential second lockdown.
The businessman, who also runs George Street restaurant Broth3rs , continued to run the scheme off his own back.
He said: “My staff are worried. They’re asking what’s going to happen and we don’t know.
“Without support, many businesses will close.”
Forfar businessman Alan Hampton has endured different impacts during the pandemic through his town interests.
The Forfar Roof Truss Company also operates one
It’s like waiting on a sentence, we’re waiting nervously
of Forfar’s most successful hostelries, Bar 10 in the town centre, and said the different operations had each been hard hit.
“Another lockdown would be a hammer blow for companies already with their hands full,” said Mr Hampton.
“The Forfar Roof Truss Co purchase a great deal of timber from Sweden, which did not lockdown, and our business partners there
cannot believe what we are doing to our economy.”
In Aberdour, Fife, Nova Gamble – who runs Sands Café with her husband Ervin – said: “We missed the summer holidays, that’s when we earn our money to get us through the winter months.
“The October break would be our last chance to earn money before winter sets in.
“It ’s a worry but realistically I have to tell staff now to prepare for closing at the end of the week. We’re fortunate that we have an outside area, and I’m hoping our location will carry us through this,” said Nova.
Ervin added: “If we’d been on the High Street, I think the future would have looked ve ry bleak.”