Lincolnshire along with the rest of the country will see the reopening of indoor hospitality for the first time in seven months on Monday, May 17.
Restaurants and bars will welcome back customers to sit indoors for the first time since early November, when Lincolnshire was placed in Tier 3 lockdown restrictions.
For independent businesses, the lockdown has been detrimental, but now many are delighted to get back up and running.
Paul Fields, the owner of Lawson’s bar and Bistro in Lincoln says he is “over the moon2 after waiting seven months to welcome customers back indoors despite being pinned back by the lockdown.
“When lockdown went into Tier 3 all the way back in November, we thought it would only be a closure for four weeks. Seven months later we are finally allowed to open back up.”
“It is our third year of business and we have been pinned back, but we have had enough to get us through the lockdown. It has given us time to refurbish the place when we wouldn’t have had time to do it normally, but it is good to get everyone and all of our staff back.”
The easing of restrictions comes as step three in the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown, with all three steps so far on track with the estimated date of easing.
Following the easing of restrictions in the second step of the lockdown roadmap on April 12, retail and outdoor hospitality in restaurants and pubs were allowed to resume. However, 60% of pubs in the UK did not have adequate space outdoors, according to the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) to welcome back drinkers in this phase of lockdown easing. After a waiting an extra month, places can welcome back customers indoors, abiding by social distancing.
With the lockdown roadmap going as plan, a step in the right direction has been taken in getting back to normality.