Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Some city pubs will
“I now face having to try to run it myself, find a new tenant or think of another way to continue. This is going to happen to many others.”
Mr Marr also raised fears about custom moving forward – and believes there could be fewer drinkers attending the city’s boozers once restrictions are eased.
He added: “You see more and more people building huts in their gardens for drinking and they are realising it is cheaper to drink at home, with some people getting in the habit of doing that.
“I had hoped we might have some semblance of normalilty by February or March but I’m not even sure now that we will be opening by April or May.
“It’s going to be be really difficult to get back up and running.
“If pubs are to get going again landlords are going to need a lot more financial support from the government.”
Mr Bissell, who has run The Occidental for 15 years and has been in the pub trade for 30 years in total, admitted he feels “demoralised” by the current situation.
He said: “I’m starting to get really concerned about the trade as a whole.
“I go in every day to check on things and wonder when I will be open again.
“For pubs like mine where we don’t do food it could be even longer as we would have to be in Level 1 to reopen.
“We put everything in place in the summer when we opened, including sanitisers, screens, table service, track and trace, one-way systems etc and found this worked very well and all our customers felt safe.”
He added: “My customers are keen to get back to the pub – for many it is their only form of social contact and to meet others.
“Pubs are needing a lot more financial help to get through this crisis for them to reopen and be up and running again.
“Pubs like mine are a huge part of our local community.
“The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit industries and many may not reopen which would be extremely sad.”