Pub boss warns of 'devastating' impact of extended hospitality restrictions

That’s the view of Dean Melville, director of Kingdom Taverns, which has 31 pubs across Scotland’s central belt, including in Fife and Falkirk district.

The temporary restrictions – due to last until November 2 – were announced during a briefing on Wednesday by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who also confirmed a further 28 deaths linked to coronavirus.

Pubs and eateries in Central Scotland were forced to close for 16 days on October 9, and Mr Melville insists the latest extension comes as a hammer blow not only to his company, but the licensed trade as a whole.

He said: “We were given a three-week lockdown, and for that to be turned around to another week, is, quite frankly, devastating for the hospitality business.”

He warned: “It’s certainly going to get worse for the majority of businesses who are struggling to survive. The only option I can see here, as a company, is redundancies because you simply can’t survive with the restrictions currently in place.

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“We need to be able to trade and at the moment we’re not being given that option. As an industry we’ve invested tens of thousands of £s to make places safe, and all of a sudden we’re not allowed to trade.”

The new measures came as a surprise to Mr Melville, who feels the hospitality sector is being discriminated against.

He continued: “I’m shocked. I expected we would be allowed to re-open in the same capacity.

“The First Minister has given a long-winded speech and said we aren’t in another lockdown. However, what she has done is force the vast majority of the hospitality trade to close by disallowing them from selling alcohol.

“That’s akin to saying to a hairdresser, ‘Don’t close, but you’re not allowed to cut hair’.

“It’s quite discriminatory as well because you can sell alcohol outside in some places – 68 per cent of all pubs in Scotland don’t have a beer garden.

“Whatever kind of grant is available will be swallowed up by whatever the employer has to contribute to the wage scheme come November.

“I just see this getting worse and it may even be the status quo through the winter.”

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