Pubs and restaurants opening this weekend

My DD is a single parent with a 2 year old daughter FreeandEasy . It won’t be young people who will make trouble, it’s not a fashionable bar .... quite the opposite. But it’s on the outskirts of a very deprived area and those who have been locked up in tower blocks will head straight for this place .

It’s about as far from “The Ivy” as anyone could imagine .

I live opposite a pub with a large beer garden and I am dreading tomorrow! At the best of times the noise from there is horrendous, fighting, shouting, swearing, screaming children running around while their parents ignore them, football screened in the garden, loud music! Its been bliss in lockdown!
We have the constant beeping of taxis picking up fares and dont even get me started on the drug dealers arriving. We have been having a battle with the LA about it for the last couple of years but at last we were making headway until lockdown.
The worst thing is its a Marstons pub and theire chief executive has basically said they wont be following the guidelines. They are not doing table service, no bookings, no masks, screens etc. I know its down to the people themselves to SD but after a few drinks thats going to go out of the window!

Who says it is safe? Barm pots!

Nothing can ever be completely safe - you take a risk walking to the bottom of your own garden. A meteor might drop out of the sky and land on your head, for example.
All you can do is minimise risk to as low as reasonably practicable.

Our favourite pub/restaurant posted on facebook to say they will be opening on Saturday. They have created an outdoor kitchen, you have to order your food in advance, and they have put tables, spaced out, in the car park. There is no indoor seating. You can either take your food home, or eat it at one of their tables, but you have to book a table in advance.

That seems eminently sensible to me, and given that there small number of cases locally is declining even further, it's a risk I'd be prepared to take, except that the weather forecast for the weekend is cold and rainy.

But I applaud them for doing the best they can to keep their clientele and staff safe & we'll be up there before too long.

If it was somewhere where cases were rising I'd feel rather differently.

In our small village, due to a lack of parking spaces for cottages, the residents park their cars on the narrow streets, making driving up those streets quite tricky. However, 2 restaurants and a pub have successfully applied to the council to commandeer the footpaths outside their establishments, so that they can seat drinkers and diners and observe social distancing. The residents are in uproar because there's nowhere else for them to park their cars, pedestrians will have to walk in the road to get past the drinkers and drivers and motorists will have to navigate around pedestrians with buggies, parks and wheelchairs.

I firmly believe that only those pubs and restaurants that have their own gardens for patrons to sit in should be allowed to open.

Where on earth do you live HAZBEEN ?

What an horrendous situation you describe and gillybob too.

With situations you have both described I would like to think that the police will be keeping an eye on those awful establishments, or am I being very naive?

I've just read that pubs will be allowed to open at 6am!

I'm all for starting to get things up and running but who on earth will want to go to the pub at 6 in the morning?

Your favourite pub/restaurant will no doubt follow all the rules JaneA but I know for sure this place won’t . They don’t even have a beer garden they have just “taken over” a piece of waste land with bench seats . I just know it will be mayhem.

I think the police might be well stretched in some places tomorrow JenniferEccles and they can’t be everywhere all the time can they ?

6am ? How desperate can a person be ? How thirsty must a person be to sink pint after pint ? Ridiculous. I could never understand this.
A glass of water's enough for me if I'm thirsty, but if I stood drinking gallons of the stuff it would be evident that something was wrong---yet not with beer ?
Must be that part of the brain that doesn't function when the norm is to stop at one.

Thank goodness I'm across the water from Liverpool that's all I can say. It'll be madness over there with all the airheads.

Gillybob that's so unacceptable among places of residence. I'd be fuming--as well as standing on the doorstep with a big stick

The police will be run ragged at a few of the " hotspots " where violence erupts and it's not fair as well as ambulances and A&E.

There are two lots of sirens going here as I write , started already ?

I live in a small town in Surrey about 30 miles from London JenniferEccles which on paper is quite prosperous and one of the "better areas" to live in this area! The problems we have are nothing compared to some areas of the country in regards trouble in pubs.

We've really missed going out to eat but wont be doing so for some time.

No sadly they can’t gillybob

Your poor daughter. I really hope the pub will be found to have taken over the common land illegally.

I know you have tried to get an answer without success.

I really hope things won’t be as bad as you fear, but if there is trouble at least that will be ammunition for your daughter and her neighbours, to get something done.

I know I am in favour of protecting people’s jobs and livelihoods but people who live near pubs shouldn’t be made to suffer.

It says it all when the news reports that A&E departments are preparing for it, and the police are expecting it to be like New Years Eve. All police leave cancelled then?

Where did that 6am start come from? What about LA licensing rules, what about residents, what about the police - the bloody bloody arrogance of No 10 (aka DC) in announcing that. Some democracy we are.

JE it doesn’t work like that.

EV My DD works as you know just on Saturdays at our local pub but even though they can open tomorrow the Landlady is staying closed until next Wednesday to in her words "let my special customers get the "stupid" out of their systems".
Mind you I would not like to upset her in her pub she is a force to be reckoned with.I do worry about my DD though and the thought of asking customers to leave after the 2hrs allowed are they going to go quietly after a few drinks I think not.

Yes of course, Glamm, I realised that when you mentioned it. I'd worry too about the answer to a polite request. I hope she gets on alright.

suziewoozie

Where did that 6am start come from? What about LA licensing rules, what about residents, what about the police - the bloody bloody arrogance of No 10 (aka DC) in announcing that. Some democracy we are.

Lots of pubs which serve food also open in the mornings serving breakfast we have one at the end of our road. They do not serve alcohol until 11am which is the LA rules.

Well that’s not how no 10 is spinning it

I for one will certainly be returning to our local bars and restaurants - they're part of the community and give the place buzz.

It's been great having the streets to myself these past months but I always felt guilty at enjoying the peace and quiet as it was at the expense of peoples' livelihoods.

These businesses were here long before I was - and it's all very civilized.

We are about 5 miles outside the edge of the Leicester Lockdown Zone with lovely river and canalside walks and pubs. Luckily they are not opening

You are lucky Riverwalk that it is so civilized! The problem pubs were at one time usually "civilized" too but not anymore.
When first moved here about 8 years ago we were so grateful to get our lovely (small) flat with the adaptions I needed. Our neighbours were nearly all older than us but we all mixed in well helping each other when we could. The pub then was a proper "local" which also served great food and most of us became regulars. Just over 4 years ago the couple who ran it left and since then we have had at least 5 changes of landlord none of which bothered to keep the place safe and all of which encouraged the younger ones in. Sometimes this was by putting a large screen tv outside for the football, or having silly promotions on things like jugs of cocktails. They also managed somehow to get late licenses for live music events and opened a larger beer garden. Hence the problems we have now.
I used to run a bar/restaurant in Spain and know how hard you have to work to keep the place a safe area for everyone (thing bargain brits on tour!). I also appreciate staff need to get back to work and earn money but not at the expense of others surely.
Our main concern is the total ignoring of the guidelines by Marstons including no table service and queue at the bar for drinks and no limiting on how many or how long people on in the pub.

Why 'luckily' kitty? River and canalside walks and pubs sounds lovely, and I'm sure the staff could do with earning a wage.

Don't you want your local businesses to thrive?