Pubs face fines as officials warn of a crackdown on queuing

Major step in the roadmap leading us out of lockdown begins with queues, lagers, swimming and mini-breaks

PUBS and bars face fines or the removal of their licences over queues in the street after officials threatened to crack down on the most popular venues as they reopened yesterday.

Scores of people queued outside pubs as they reopened in line with the second step of lockdown easing.

Preliminary figures suggested foot- fall in high streets rose more than 140 per cent, with hospitality venues reporting being fully booked for weeks.

Industry leaders warned against overzealous enforcement of rules after councils threatened pubs with fines and closure if too many people queued.

At least 100 waited outside the Oak Inn in Coventry when it opened at midnight on Sunday. The council says the pub may have breached rules with “large queues or unmanageable amounts of visitors”. It said its licensing team could use a “wide range of powers and possible actions” if the pub was found to have broken rules, despite the queue being away from its premises.

In Maidstone, Kent, where drinkers queued to get into the Brenchley pub, the council said landlords faced a “fixed penalty notice, prohibition notice, licence review or a combination” for failing to enforce social distancing.

Other long queues were seen in Manchester, Sunderland, Burnley and Birmingham. Government guidance says pubs should “manage outside queues to ensure they do not cause a risk”.

But Emma Mcclarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pubs Association, called on ministers and councils to “show some pragmatism” in the face of the huge demand.

“We hope councils will approach the guidance in the spirit of assisting us to find a way to open safely – not finding ways to use it to shut us down,” she said.

Industry leaders said bottlenecks were inevitable when venues were required to check drinkers at the door with NHS Test and Trace.

Scientists have said outdoor mixing will have a “relatively modest” impact on the spread of Covid. One expert said a rise in hospitalisations was likely only if people began mixing indoors.

A Government spokesman said: “We recognise the huge efforts made by pubs and restaurants to be able to reopen for customers safely today, including helping to ensure that people queuing for premises do so safely.”

‘My lager is absolutely delicious. It’s not going to last long at all’

‘We have had quite a big uptake of new people coming to the leisure centre – they have spent a lot of time at home and want to get out and about’

IT WAS billed as the Glorious 12th and, naturally, the British weather didn’t immediately get that memo. Still, frigid temperatures and a light welcome of morning sleet were never going to stop people reclaiming many of their long-deprived liberties yesterday.

After the return of outdoor activities and small, al fresco gatherings a fortnight ago, yesterday saw the next major step on the roadmap towards the end of lockdown in England, as pubs, restaurants, salons and non-essential shops opened their doors, in addition to the reintroduction of several less obvious – but no less yearned-for – freedoms.

More than four months of waiting was plenty for some, as the first unavoidably chilled pints were drunk outside pubs just after midnight.

In the morning, Pippa Ingram, 51, and Sue Bell, 55, were served the first drinks at the UK’S biggest pub, the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate, Kent.

The friends clinked glasses and each took a long, well-earned sip. “Absolutely delicious,” Ms Ingram said of her lager. “It’s not going to last long at all. That is banging.” While many quenched their thirst, non-essential retail sites steeled themselves for reopening, with queues of shoppers massing outside stores.

Police stepped in to manage crowds at Manchester’s Arndale Centre, and scores could be seen on London’s Oxford Street first thing.

In Truro, Cornwall, more than 20 people gently shivered outside Primark at 6.45am, ahead of a 7am opening.

It was the humorist George Mikes who said that “an Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one”, and there was something oddly cheering about the reappearance of so many tidy lines on our streets yesterday.

Perhaps understandably, hair salons and barbers hosted some of the most patient examples of that particular national pastime. Photographs shared on social media showed nightclub-style barriers set up outside Magnolia Barbering in Chesterfield, where more than a dozen men of varying ages and levels of hirsuteness waited their turn.

Leisure centres and gyms were also allowed to reopen – though without exercise classes or saunas, which will have to wait. Marika Smith, general manager of Hough End Leisure Centre, Withington, Manchester, said she “has not slept the last two nights” before her site reopened.

It was the centre’s third reopening in a year, but staff were quietly confident it could be the last. One-way systems, cleaning stations, cashless payments and an app to book sessions have all been implemented to make it as Covidsafe as possible. The centre’s users showed no signs of trepidation.

“All of the swimming is fully booked, you can’t get on any [pre-bookable sessions], and the same for the busy parts of this evening, 6 to 7 o’clock, is fully booked,” Ms Smith said.

“We have had quite a big uptake of new people coming to the centre, which could be down to people realising that they have spent a lot of time at home and just wanting to get out and about.”

But there were other ways to get out and about, including going further afield. As of yesterday, staycations became legal for households with selfcontained accommodation, meaning

‘We didn’t want to upset the local people by breaking the rules and going to Cornwall the day before’

‘It was so nice to be back in close contact. It was lovely to be physically close, making eye contact and seeing her face’

many families spent Sunday night packing their bags before setting off for their second homes after midnight.

Accountant Alex Lindsay, 33, and her husband Rob, 34, an IT specialist, set off from their home in Sandhurst, Berks, with their children Florence, six, and two-year-old William, to stay at their holiday home in Fowey, Cornwall.

“We’ve timed it so, if we leave now, it’s hopefully a four-hour drive so we can get there around midnight,” Mrs Lindsay said at 8pm on Sunday.

“We didn’t want to upset the local people by breaking the rules and going there on April 11, even if it was late afternoon. We haven’t been allowed to go there since before Christmas so we’re hoping it’s all OK when we arrive.” Traffic

reports from the M4 and M5 suggested they weren’t the only ones; dozens of cars laden with luggage were seen heading west yesterday morning.

Early snowy conditions caused police to urge caution, but as the day went on and blue skies appeared, the great, late Easter holidays getaway was on.

A midway point between staycations and breakfast pints was perhaps an escapist trip to the zoo or a theme park, both of which also reopened. In images that served to swell national pride, photographs showed thrillseekers at Thorpe Park, Surrey, riding the Depth Charge water slide in full winter coats and scarves. Meanwhile, at Alton Towers, Staffs, the welcome party included Eric the Yeti and Darwin the Dodo – giant, smiling mascots who stood in front of a new stage to greet arrivals.

If anything, zoos were even more creative with their ribbon-cutting. At ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, staff wrote the letters “WE ARE OPEN” on a stack of boxes, then waited for a herd of rhinos to batter the lot down with their horns. Because nothing says “reopening of society” like a two-ton beast headbutting some cardboard. For all the fun, however, there was also a serious side, and some changes in regulations meant something far more significant could be regained than access to a second home or a haircut.

Ruth Mcnichol, 66, from Hove, East Sussex, was able to visit her 93-year-old mother, Daisy Bunn, at Maycroft Manor

Care Home in Brighton accompanied by her son, George, 27.

As of yesterday, care home residents could welcome two named friends or relatives for the first time since before lockdown.

Mrs Mcnichol said previous visits had to take place behind a Perspex screen, which “made communication difficult” as Daisy is deaf and has dementia, while George has Asperger’s. Yesterday, it felt “emotional” to be able to sit together in one, screen-free room. “It was George she really wanted to see most. I’m an only child, so he is like the son she never had. You can see it in her eyes, as soon as she sees him,” she said.

“It was so nice to be back in close contact. You haven’t got that intimacy over Skype, or behind a screen. It was lovely to be physically close, making eye contact and seeing her face.”

The visit serves as a reminder of the sacrifices families up and down the country have had to make in lockdown.

It was a day of reunions, relief and retail therapy, and for many in England, it marked the first tentative – and possibly wobbly, in the case of the breakfast drinkers – steps towards normality.

By dusk, the morning’s frost and showers had turned to spring sunshine. It was late, but the Glorious 12th arrived – a sign, perhaps, of better days to come.

Another milestone on the roadmap has been passed. Now, roll on May 17.