RESTAURANT director Jane Dowler is calling for barriers to be removed from the centre of Knutsford to enable shoppers and restaurant-goers to park for free on the street.
Jane is the director of Evuna Restaurant and Bars, which has a restaurant in King Street, Knutsford, which reopened on Thursday.
While Jane is excited to welcome back her clientele the capacity of the restaurant has been reduced by about 50 per cent inside and 30 per cent on the terrace to comply with social distancing rules.
In addition while she is pleased with the level of bookings during the evening she is concerned that her lunchtime trade is being hit by red barriers placed on the streets by Cheshire East Council.
The street barriers installed by Cheshire East Council
The barriers were installed to make it easier for people to maintain social distancing, but Jane believes they should be removed.
She said: “Small towns like Knutsford thrive on the fact that people can nip into town and park for free to go for a bite to eat or nip into their favourite dress shop.
“Because of the barriers people can’t do this, and there is no need for them in the first place as the streets are empty. Also aesthetically they look awful and make the town look terrible.
“I have been in the car park every day for the past week trying to park, but the queue to the machine is huge because one of the machines is broken every other day.”
She said she was ‘really excited’ at reopening the restaurant, and thanked her regulars, who she said ‘couldn’t wait to come back’, for their support.
She added: “The tables are more spaced out, we have lots of signs about staying safe, social distancing and sanitising hands on entry.
The outdoor terrace at Evuna
“Our staff are wearing visors and we have single-use menus, but other than that we just want people to come in and relax.
“We are doing Eat out to Help out from August 1, and have introduced shopevuna.com where you can build your own case of our exclusive wines.
“Each month we have a zoom wine tasting, and have also launched Evuna at home evuna.com/dine-out/ where customers can order online.
“Finally we have launched Evuna outside and are doing wine tastings and outside catering in and around Manchester/Cheshire.”
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