Class action: High school pupils return to their desks
On Day 105 of mainland Scotland's second lockdown, pupils at Larbert High School joined all secondary school pupils across Scotland in returning to classrooms full time, although some had already gone back – but there was fury in the hospitality sector ov
A restaurant owner has made a passionate plea for a change in the rules after the latest “bombshell” guidelines on hospitality.
Carina Contini, co-owner of Contini restaurants in Edinburgh, has spoken out about the latest guidelines that ask venues to ensure people from different households be seated one metre apart from each other, even if they are at the same table.
Ms Contini, speaking on Good Morning Scotland yesterday, said: “So up until last Friday we were feeling really optimistic, we're feeling positive.
"And then at 6pm on Friday, guidelines, and further, further reports – I mean there's so many I can't even, I've not even read them all yet – have been released and thrown us an absolute bombshell.
"I mean [it’s] an absolute impossibility in terms of being able to open.
"So the bookings that we've already got … we'll have to phone up and say ‘I'm sorry, we can't honour your booking because we know can't host this level of capacity’.
"Then suppliers that we've committed to … we're gonna have to phone up and say ‘I'm sorry, we can't buy this level stock because we won't be able to sell it’, and then the team that we've given jobs to, we're going to have to force them up and say ‘I'm sorry, we just do not have a role for you’.
"It is absolutely going to be crippling for the sector.”
Ms Contini co-owns a company that runs restaurants on Edinburgh’s George Street, Castlehill and in the Scottish National Gallery.
She continued: "If I was catering for six people at a table, I'd have to have a table that's three-and-a-half metres long.
"There's not a restaurant supplier in the country that makes tables that are threeand-a-half metres long.
“I mean, elderly customers who may be hard of hearing, they're gonna have to Facetime themselves over lunch because the distance is just so far away.”
Hospitality venues are preparing to reopen outside areas next Monday in the latest stage of the road map out of lockdown.
Six adults from six households are currently allowed to meet up.
The latest guidelines were released on Friday night.