Scotland’s pubs and restaurants sector have called for an easing of the two-metre social distancing guidelines, and follow the ‘controlled environment’ model used in New Zealand instead.
This comes after Nicola Sturgeon confirmed during her daily coronavirus briefing on 11 June that Scotland is on schedule to start implementing phase two of easing of the lockdown restrictions starting on Thursday 18 June and to start welcoming tourists back to Scotland.
The easing of restrictions will allow bars and restaurants to reopen outdoors seating areas, and for small shops to resume trading.
Scotland’s key industry insiders are calling for the Scottish government to allow pubs, restaurants, and small traders such as cafes and hairdressers to be ‘controlled environments’ so that social distancing measures can be reduced.
This is the model adopted by New Zealand and Guernsey, where traders are asked to keep a list of customers for the track and trace effort
Graeme Arnott, Director of Caledonian Heritable, one of the biggest pub and restaurant operators in the country, said: “Restaurants and pubs are a huge part of the Scottish economy and a huge employer as a result.
“This week alone, we have seen a tsunami of businesses announce mass redundancies, and we can expect this to continue if we cannot see a step-change towards reducing this two-metre rule before 15 July.
“If labelling the licensed trade as ‘controlled environments’ were included in the upcoming government guidelines for the industry – this would give the responsibility back to business owners to ensure staff and customer safety and allow them to track and trace customers through a number of different methods.”
Hopefully, there will be plenty of pubs open for a refreshing drink at the end of a Scottish hiking tour, so visit us today for more walking holidays in Scotland.