City landlord welcomes getting customers "back to the bar" but warns of need to avoid future lockdown

Paul Butcher, licensee of Preston’s Stanley Arms, said the real boost to business will come when people can order directly at the bar.

He said he would welcome lifting the obligation to wear masks, but added: “It’s not the masks. What would boost the business is losing table restrictions and getting back to being able to serve people at the bar, rather than having double the amount of staff out to do half the amount of trade.”

Paul believes pubs, such as his on Lancaster Road in the city centre and other hospitality venues, had carried the brunt of enforcing regulations such as mask wearing and it had lead to some difficult conversations with some customers not accepting or understanding why they had to wear masks to walk from the door to their pre-booked table where they could then take their mask off. He said: “People have sworn at us and threatened to punch us because we asked them to wear a mask.”

He continued: “The wearing of masks is lunacy anyway. As far as our pub goes most of our tables are within four yards of the door, six yards tops. We’ve got to have arguments with people at the front door for them to wear a mask for six yards before they sit down.”

He said the danger of infection was not in walking to the table but in people sneezing, coughing and touching surfaces.

He was also mindful of the rising numbers of Covid cases and said: “ I think we welcome the lifting of all restrictions but not at the expense of going into future measures through the rest of the year.”

He complained there had appeared to be an inconsistent application of the social distancing measures - with for example, social distancing not observed among scenes of supporters at the England v.Germany match for example. Meanwhile businesses still faced an administrative burden sorting the new furlough arrangements too.

For more local reaction see here and here * The Lancashire Post is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. For unlimited access to Lancashire news and information online, you can subscribe here.