Landlords in Keswick say the Government’s forthcoming announcement that all bars and pubs will have to close at 10pm will not make much difference to them.
It has been reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell Parliament at 12.30pm a new range of measures will come into force to help stop the spread of coronavirus, including a 10pm curfew, table service and encouraging people to work from home.
Catherine Maloney owns The Oddfellows Arms on Keswick’s Main Street with her husband Carl.
She said: “We’ve been shutting at 10pm since reopening in July. We just didn’t need the extra pressure.
“When we first opened, we were running table service but we couldn’t cope.
“It was too busy so we did reopen the bar. If table service is back, we will just have to manage.
“Hopefully it won’t be as busy but we might have to get rid of a few tables in the beer garden if it is.
“It will be a lot colder as well so that will help.”
James McCall is the general manager of The Round bar and restaurant on Main Street.
He said: “We’ve been stopping service at 10 pm anyway and trying to get customers out by 10.30pm.
“It was just too hard to enforce social distancing rules after 10pm as once people had a few drinks they were trying to move around.
“We’ve also been doing table service since reopening post-lockdown.
“It’s worked very well for us.”
James said he thought the rules were necessary and that the rule of six had been the most useful measure for The Round.
He said: “Before the rule of six, groups of eight were calling to book and saying they were just two households.
“When they would show up it was obvious they were three of four households.
“We were doing our part legally but morally it seemed off. Now only six people can book each table it seems better.”
Phil Harrison owns the Twisted Magnolia Belgian beer bar and bistro on Lake Road.
Phil said: “We will have to close at 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays now instead of 11pm.
“The new rules aren’t a big change for us as we always did table service for food, so it was easy for us to do the same for drinks.
“The problem will be if the rules affect footfall. They might affect people’s confidence about going out.”
