Eastbourne companies prepare to reopen on April 12

As of Monday, Government restrictions will relax to allow food and drinks to be served outdoors while non-essential shops and hairdressers can also reopen.

Director of The Pilot Inn in Meads Lisa Carter said, “Very, very excited. We just want to get the doors open and welcome people back and to get back to as much normality as possible really.

“The team are all ready. We are in here at the moment getting things ready, sorting the garden out. We have got heaters and blankets and things.”

Ms Carter has also been preparing to make the pub safe for reopening.

Ms Carter, “We have got the Covid measures, the social distancing, we have got all the track and trace that they have to do now.

“All the social distancing regulations, hand sanitisers, things like that. A lot of it is what we had here from before.

“We are just making sure we have got our risk assessment and everything up to date.”

Clothing stores will also be able to reopen on Monday and the owner of Born on Grove Road has been preparing.

Simon Porter said, “We have got a lot of new stock so we are all summer ready with spring and summer collections in and we have made a few adjustments to the store, not a huge amount, but we have been using our time productively.”

Mr Porter also spoke about the year in an out of lockdown.

Mr Porter said, “It was very challenging in the last 12 months.

“In terms of plus sides, our online business has grown and we have got obviously the time that we were closed to try and concentrate on that and work out what works for us, trial and error with some projects.

“The negatives are obviously our cash flow is down. Our sales are probably sort of 30-40 per cent online so we are missing out on 70 per cent of our walk-in which does hurt.

“We are looking forward to that, although our online as I said has increased this year. So that percentage has gone up but we are still missing that walk-in customer who likes to try on goods.”

As of Monday hairdressers will also be able to reopen.

Owner of Tiger Lily Hair and Beauty Mobile Lynda Tookey says she is excited to be seeing her regulars again.

Ms Tookey said, “It will be nice to get back and see my clients again. You sort of build up a relationship with them so you kind of miss them when you don’t see them, especially some of the older ones.”