BAR owners in Northwich have strongly criticised the government for the lack of notice they were given about having to close on Boxing Day.

The announcement by Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Wednesday (December 23) to place Cheshire under Tier 3 restrictions came as a surprise, with many in the hospitality sector expecting to at least be able to see out the year.

Pete Naylor, one of four owners of The Hart in Hartford, said although he understood the reasons why the government had to respond to the rising cases in the borough, described the notice period as 'unacceptable'.

He said: "Finding out on Wednesday afternoon that Thursday will be your last trading day, in the peak trading trading period has huge implications.

"I totally understand the reason for the government to respond to rising Covid cases, but the notice period that Matt Hancock and a Boris Johnson lead government have provided is unacceptable.

"We were prepared that there would potentially be January restrictions, but we are fully booked up until the New Year, and therefore stocked accordingly.

"This will result in a significant amount of waste for hospitality businesses across Cheshire with food and drink stock looking likely to be binned."

Pete also added how concerned he was for his staff, some of which were only recently taken on by the popular eaterie.

"We have huge concerns for our team," he said.

"We have new members of the team that were recruited throughout November and December, but the government have issued no further update on the job retention scheme, so we have a number of the team who rightly so are fearful about their future employment.

"Despite all of this, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has visited us throughout December.

"It has been an extremely different Christmas, but we have been overwhelmed by the kind support shown by our community.

"We are looking forward already to coming back even stronger."

Keith Davies, who owns the popular town centre Temple Cafe Bar with his wife Janey, echoed the comments about the announcement coming as a surprise.

"It was one of those where I thought they would have left it until the new year before locking us down again

"We were fully booked for New Year's Eve, which would have given us a nice boost.

"But that's not happening now so we're having to refund people instead.

"The one thing that really gets me is the lack of notice they've given to everybody.

"If they would have given us four or five days notice, we'd be able to simply run our stock down.

"But they haven't, they've basically told us, that from tomorrow, you can't open."

Northwich Guardian:

With the hospitality businesses business seemingly at the mercy of the government's Covid-19 policy, Keith said it felt very much that it was taking the brunt, with a worry about a lack of real thinking behind the decisions.

"There seems to be such little care and thought behind these decisions," he added.

"It's almost like they don't like the industry because it's helping the spread, yet we don't seem to be doing that at all.

"Since we opened in September, we've not had one call from Track and Trace and I know that's the same for a couple of other bars in Northwich.

"It's been absolutely zero.

"They're treating us like the bad guys when there's actually little proof that any cases have actually come from the industry."

Despite taking time out during the lockdown in November, to evaluate how their first few months in the industry had gone, Keith and Janey are this time making plans to at least provide a take away service, as soon as they can.

"My idea, if we can, is to set something up outside, which will kind of be like an artisan shop," Keith explained.

"We have home made pies and other nice food and hot drinks which our customers like.

"If we can do that, it will mean we will at least have money coming in to be able to pay the rent, so at least when we can re-open we'll be able to and all the staff will still have jobs here.

"My heart goes out to everybody, from the staff, to other business owners, we're all in this together.

"It's just a nightmare, both on the mental and the financial side of things.

"But I'd just like to thank all our customers and wish the whole of Northwich a very happy Christmas and a healthy new year."