Roll out the barrels: 17m pints ready to pour as Scottish high streets hope for a £200m lockdown bounceback
High street retailers bemoan return of charges as drivers hit for £65m a year
scotland’s malls, pubs and restaurants are hoping for a £200 million spending bonanza when they reopen this week.
Enclosed shopping centres will open their doors tomorrow while the tills will be ringing again – with cash being discouraged – at pubs, restaurants and hairdressers from Wednesday.
Trade body the Scottish Retail
Consortium (SRC) said the country’s stores will work flatout to claw back some of the estimated £125m they lost each week of lockdown. SRC head of policy, Ewan MacDonaldRussell, said: “The shopping experience may be different, but customers should feel confident visiting the high street.”
And Andrew McRae, policy chair at Scotland’s
Federation of Small Businesses, said: “As the country takes these next steps back to something like normality, we encourage everyone who can do so to get back out into their community and support their local independents.”
As Scotland enters phase three of the route map for easing the lockdown, from Wednesday indoor pubs, cafes and restaurants can also ask for an exemption from the two-metre social-distancing rule, but will be required to inform customers they are entering a one-metre zone, as well as having revised
seating plans and improved ventilation systems.
Advice on physical distancing will have to be adhered to at all times, and customers will have to provide their contact details. All holiday accommodation can also open again, along with cinemas, museums and art galleries.
The Scottish Beer and Pub Association (SBPA) estimated that 6.8 million pints were poured down the drain because of the lockdown and, it fears, up to 460 pubs that closed at the start of the lockdown are likely to remain shut permanently.
Around 17 million pints – worth £68m – have been brewed to restock pubs, which will last until the end of the month.
SBPA chief executive Emma McClarkin said: “Wednesday is without a doubt an exciting time for pubs and bars across Scotland. After almost four months of forced closure, and almost seven million pints needing to be destroyed, operators are desperate to welcome customers through their doors.”
She added: “The pandemic was obviously catastrophic for the hospitality industry, with an estimated £670m lost in revenue for Scotland’s pubs and bars since March.
“Support from both Scottish and UK Governments has been instrumental in keeping businesses afloat until now, but we estimate that up to 460 pubs could have been lost during this time and will not be reopening their doors on Wednesday.
“For those which have survived, further additional support will be needed through the long recovery period ahead.”
UK Hospitality said Scottish businesses in the sector have lost between £750m and £1 billion during the lockdown.
Executive director for Scotland Willie Macleod said: “This is an unprecedented crisis, so we very much expect revenue to be down. Many businesses have had three whole months of closure with no revenue at all.”
Councils have been criticised for bringing in sunday parking charges as high street shops try to bounce back following the Covid-19 crisis.
Retail bodies say even a short-term break on charges would have encouraged greater footfall in struggling city centres forced to compete with out-of-town malls with vast free car parks.
The Sunday charges emerge as we reveal Scottish councils received £200 million in parking fines and charges in the past three years.
Charging for on-street parking resumed in Glasgow on Thursday and will include Sunday fees.
Aberdeen City Council said charges, including Sundays, apply across the city, while levies, including Sundays, are to be reintroduced in Dundee from tomorrow.
Pay and display resumed in Edinburgh from June 22 with the city council currently in the midst of a legal process to introduce fees on Sundays.
Ewan MacDonald-Russell, head of policy at the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “We believe local authorities should be taking a pause on parking charges for the short term to get people back to the high street. Particularly in this crisis, we need people back shopping. We want people to come to city centres to support businesses and protect jobs.”
Councillor Anna Richardson, Glasgow City Council’s convener for sustainability and carbon reduction, said: “Suspending parking charges was the right thing to do at the time. But with restrictions beginning to ease, it is appropriate for us to revisit the decision to suspend charges.”
Meanwhile, figures obtained by The Sunday Post under Freedom of Information show Edinburgh was top of the list of councils for parking income, taking £67m over three years, with Glasgow next on £48m.
Rural councils also earned large sums from drivers, with Highland Council taking in £5.5m and Argyll and Bute’s figure at £3.1m.
While six local authorities – Clackmannanshire, North Ayrshire, Shetland, West Dunbartonshire, Western Isles and West Lothian – had no income from parking over the period, the figures show the other 26 local authorities earned £206m in three years.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Transport Secretary Jamie Greene said: “This exposes just how much of a cash cow drivers are for local authorities. In return, all drivers seem to get are pothole-laden roads, increasing congestion and no tangible improvements to public transport to encourage people out of their cars.”
The AA said: “Councils have harvested hundreds of millions of pounds from parking which should have been reinvested long ago in providing drivers with cleaner and cost-effective alternatives.”
Local authority umbrella group COSLA said: “If you park illegally you are committing an offence and penalties only apply to people who commit an offence.”