Great news for Crawley’s pubs, restaurants and hairdressers

A Crawley publican has welcomed the Government’s decision to relax the social distancing rules and has urged people to return to the town’s pubs, restaurants and bars to help ‘kick-start’ the town’s economy.

Earlier today (June 23) Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a forthcoming partial easing of the restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Pubs, restaurants, and hairdressers will be allowed to reopen in England from July 4 and the social distancing rule will be cut from 2m to 1m.

Karen Lewis, the landlady of the Octopvs bar in High Street, welcomed the news and said after a tough three months she was looking forward to serving customers again.

She said: ”This will be an incredibly tough time for Crawley as a town. The majority of our clients work at the airport and as much as I’m sure many will be itching to get to the bars, restaurants and pubs we have to remember that many have lost their jobs and will not have the funds to be able to drink and eat out excessively.

“Relaxing social distancing will massively assist in trying to maintain a safe environment and also to generate an income and capacity that allows us to just cover our overheads until such times that we can get back to normality.

“Health and safety is paramount to our staff and customers and this was very much focus in the last three months but we also have to be aware of the impact this will have on the local economy and possible closure of some businesses if we don’t just kick-start our town.

“We thankfully have a very large outside area where social distancing at tables will be easily adhered to with new tables and furniture, we envisage initially table service by our dedicated bartenders, we have two main bars so we can rotate shifts and deep cleans after each shift to maintain a flowing service.

“All public areas will be thoroughly cleaned during shifts and hand sanitisers around the venue. We will also have floor plans to guide social distancing. Our risk assessment will be completed before opening once we have the guidelines to ensure the safety and enjoyment of our customers new and old.”

Karen also praised the efforts of MP Henry Smith and his team who have given valuable advice and assistance.

She said: “Octopvs did not receive any government grants due to the business rates being above the small business rates threshold. It has therefore been a very challenging three months.

“Luckily we had a very successful 2019 that has enabled us to keep our head above water.”

The Crawley Observer is backing all of the town’s shops, stores, pubs, bars, restaurants and hairdressers in their return to trading after months enforced closure due to the coronavirus pandemic

JPIMedia, the publisher of the Observer, is standing firmly behind our traders with its #supportlocal campaign.