Pub managers facing a double blow
PUB managers Ruth and Dave Wicks are trying to stay positive but with the real fear of losing their job and home it’s not easy.
They run and live above The Plough in Doncaster, which goes into Tier 3 lockdown on Saturday.
When we arrive, the town centre pub’s benches are lined with single male pensioners all two metres apart, with their masks by their pints or around their necks.
Ruth tells us: “I feel so depressed. We have the double worry of our job and our home. But I try to keep smiling because it’s not just us, our customers are suffering, too. They need to stop picking on pubs.”
Infection rates in Doncaster have soared. There are now 150 Covid patients in local hospitals, up from just 10 last month. Dave, 56, pictured right, says: “We’ve done everything right, we’re probably one of the strictest pubs in Doncaster. It’s so stressful, we’ve still got three staff on furlough.
“Our boss has been amazing and made up the 20% missing wage at the first lockdown but he can’t keep doing that. If our boss can’t sustain the business we will be homeless.”
Dave says with the lower furlough payout the couple will be £400 a month worse off, meaning they will struggle with their bills. They have repeatedly tried to tell their regulars how they would have to shut for around four weeks.
Regular, John Brewitt, 87, a retired gas company worker who sits doing his Mirror crossword, looks upset and says: “I live alone and I can’t imagine being without it. Ruth really looks after me.”
As he gets ready to leave the couple call him a taxi and Ruth hands him a shepherd’s pie, telling him: “Put it in the oven John for 30 minutes if you want a crusty top.”
In Sheffield at Effingham Sandwich Shop, Nigel Matthews, 57, has cut staff from five to two and says: “It’s unbelievable. We are not going to get rid of it, it’s impossible. I can’t see it ever ending.”
Pauline Thorpe, 77, says: “I’m fed up with it but I think it’s the only thing that we can do. You can’t do a job if you’re six feet under.” Trevor Hague, 38, and Billie Clark, 29, shopping in Sheffield with their newborn, said they were sure it had been spread by students. Trevor added: “They were all going out partying.”
Back at The Plough, barman Karl Horsefield, 38, faces being furloughed for the second time, and sums up the mood in South Yorkshire: “Angry does not come close. It’s as if the Government think Covid only exists in the hospitality sector. It doesn’t make sense.”
Alan Shaw, 65, from Doncaster, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, said: “I think they are making the North suffer for the Government’s incompetence.
“The Tory party conned people in the North to get their votes and then abandoned us.”
We’ve the double fear of losing our home and jobs
RUTH WICKS MANAGER OF THE PLOUGH