Open for business

Linda Battison, OLTA There’s a real sense of excitement and a buzz about the town as businesses prepare to reopen and the town gears up to welcome back visitors. We hope our communities will appreciate that Oban needs to get back to business.

Nicola Sturgeon, right, confirmed on Tuesday a major reopening of Scotland from Monday next week after more than four months of lockdown.

Parts of the country currently in level four, including all of mainland Scotland, will move to level three from April 26.

It means the reopening of tourist accommodation, pubs, cafes, restaurants, and non-essential shops, along with indoor attractions such as galleries, museums and libraries, she said.

Also from Monday, gyms and swimming pools can reopen for individual exercise but not group sessions.

From the start of next week, all travel throughout Scotland and from Scotland to England and Wales will resume.

Restrictions on travel to and from Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man will also be lifted, she said.

The hope is that from May 17, all of Scotland would move to level two. That would mean people will be able to meet in ‘small numbers’ in each others’ homes for the ‘first time in a long time’.

On that date, there will also be further opening of hospitality, while outdoor contact sports for adults will resume on that date, she added.

‘Then, if circumstances permit, I can confirm that it would be the intention to move to level one on Monday June 7, before then, I hope, moving to level zero in late June,’ she said in a statement today.

The ‘deeper part of summer’ will resemble something much more closer to normality over the course of July, she added.

‘We are hopeful, very hopeful, of seeing sustained progress in the weeks and months ahead,’ she said.

However, she warned there if there are ‘flare ups’ of Covid, the government may need from ‘time to time’ to enforce local travel restrictions either within Scotland, or to parts of the rest of the United Kingdom.

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