Coronavirus in Scotland: Edinburgh bars react to extension of restrictions

In her briefing today, the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that bars and pubs will have to remain closed until Monday November 2 across the central belt.
Nicola Sturgeon announced bars and pubs in the central belt must remain closed until November 2.Nicola Sturgeon announced bars and pubs in the central belt must remain closed until November 2.
Nicola Sturgeon announced bars and pubs in the central belt must remain closed until November 2.

The temporary lockdown measures imposed on pubs and restaurants on October 9 were due to finish on Sunday this week. But Ms Sturgeon confirmed earlier today the Scottish Government has decided to extend the restrictions until 6am on November 2.

Toby Saltonstall the owner of Dreadnought Leith said: "In order to justify us reopening, they would have had to be able to justify us closing. I'm fully expecting to remain closed for

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the foreseeable future. Now it's more about financial support for businesses and helping us.”

He continued: “In terms of where we see the transition, they can’t close education I understand that, they can’t close workplaces and some people can’t work from home, they can’t close care homes, and so you go down the list of where transition is occurring and eventually you get to hospitality.

"I feel like we as an industry we have done more than any other industry to make our venues safe, it’s not been cheap either. We spent a lot of money to keep the places safe and it just seems like we are the easiest target each time and it’s just not matched in terms of financial support.”

Mr Saltonstall added: "I always feel like they have a better idea than they let on, upcoming measures are always presented as though they are kind of last minute decisions. I

suspect that's not the case and if they could give us more warning that would be great.

“We are all looking to help and we’ve done so much to try and make sure we’re not part of the problem but it seems like we’re the first industry they turn to when they

need to look like they’re doing something."

Manager of Panda and Sons, Nicky Craig said: "I think most people kind of acknowledged that the cases weren't coming from hospitality so closing it wasn't going to cause the cases to come down, when she said 16 days we all kind of assumed that it was going to be a lot longer than that.

“It just kind of put us back to where we found ourselves in March, the only kind of positive was that this time we knew how to close the venue down and what we could do in terms of takeaway and things to get us going again as soon as possible."

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The news came as Ms Sturgeon announced the latest coronavirus figures for the past 24 hours, stating that Scotland recorded its highest daily death toll since May 21 with 28 new deaths. A further 1,739 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed across the country.

Grant McNeil, owner of The Mash Tun, the Greenmantle and the Auld Hoose in Edinburgh said: "I'd be interested to see if there's a big reduction in the figures, when it happened two weeks ago I didn't think it was the right move but now we're seeing the rest of the UK going that way.

"I kind of thought that we were being used as a bit of a scapegoat, it was more universities that had caused the problem locally for us, the parties in the halls I suspect are causing more of a problem than people coming socially distanced into my pub.

“If she had wanted the hospitality industry to start kicking off again on Monday or Tuesday, it would have been almost impossible for us to get supply chains and get stock in and get everything organised with the time frame that we would have been given.”

Across the rest of the country, licensed premises are still restricted to serving between 6am and 6pm for another week. If they intend to serve alcohol, it must be outside where customers can drink until the 10pm curfew.

James Calder, Chief Executive of the Society of Independent Brewers, said: "The new Tier 3 restrictions in South Yorkshire and extension of the lockdown in Scotland to November will further drive hospitality over the edge; and without Government support for the independent breweries that supply 80% of their beer to pubs which are being forced to shut we are likely to see continued brewery closures.“It is now absolutely essential that the Government extend the hospitality industry support to the UK’s independent breweries, which are closely linked with the fortunes of our pubs. Without further support this Government could be driving out independent brewing across the UK and allowing the Global beer companies who have the funds to ride out the pandemic another chance to saturate the market. It is essential we support local beer if we want to ensure it isn’t lost forever."

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