Stop kicking can down the road, pubs tell PM
LANDLADY Caron Williams said the Prime Minister ‘must not keep kicking the can down the road’ after he delayed Freedom Day by a month.
The mother-of-four, 56, rescued The Star Inn with her husband in their home village of Sparsholt, Oxfordshire, nine years ago after it almost went bust.
She is now worried the end of the warm weather will drive her business below the point of breaking-even again, as the one-metre social distancing rule means ‘restricting tables like mad’.
Mrs Williams said: ‘Boris will have to draw a line under it at some point. At some point they have to have the confidence to say we know rates are going to go up, but almost everyone is vaccinated. We have to crack on.
‘It’s fine to delay to get more data – but we mustn’t go backwards and they mustn’t keep hanging these restrictions over us for another four weeks.
‘People have been disappointed so many times and it’s tricky operationally at the moment with staffing. We want to avoid at all costs going backwards, but we’ve all got to learn to live with this thing. I will feel very differently if the can keeps being kicked down the road.’
In response to the changing restrictions she has invested more than £15,000, including splashing out on a Bedouin tent for the beer garden, an Argentinian barbecue and an outdoor pizza oven.
It comes as the boss of Greene King said the four-week delay to the roadmap will wipe off £1million in sales every time England play in the European Championships.
Chief executive Nick Mackenzie said it was ‘extremely disappointing’ and predicted the brewer, which has 3,000 pubs, would lose £12million on match days in total.
Mr Mackenzie said: ‘A month is a lot to this industry when it’s trying to get on its feet, and it will mean people will either have to remain on furlough or jobs will be lost.’