Mixed Publican reaction over 'Freedom Day' announcement

Swindon Link has been in touch with Old Town pub owners to gather their thoughts on lockdown restrictions lifting.

The proposed 'freedom day' on July 19 will see the lifting of rules around facial coverings, social distancing and group gathering sizes.

Members of the public will be able to stand at the bar, greet and order a drink from public house staff and celebrate like they used to. But what does this announcement mean for the pub hosts of Swindon? Swindon Link spoke to the owners of four pubs within Old Town. 

Violet McLaren, owner of The Vic, said: "I'm so totally hacked off with our Government. Lifting restrictions while cases are on the rise means that more and more people will test positive and therefore all their contacts will need to isolate for 10 days. This will effectively close all hospitality venues within 10 days due to no staff being available to work.

"I don’t believe that this government are stupid, so why have they come up with this obviously unworkable ‘plan’? And don’t tell me no one else could have come up with a better plan at any point because that’s just not true."

Violet asked: "Should venues continue to operate under restrictions whilst taking abuse from customers who want their freedom in order to protect staff from being told to self-isolate?"

"Should venues lift all restrictions and pile people in without face masks and serve them at the bar, resulting in short term gain, but business closed, due to the number of positive cases or staff self-isolating?"

Her opinions on the Goverment plan for July 19 are clear: "This is a really bad plan, made by people that have really proved that they should not be in charge. Double-vaccinated people will be exempt from self-isolation on August 16 but that doesn't help us to get to that point, nor does it address the hospitality workers that will not have had both their vaccines by this point."

Jamie Stapleton, co-owner of the Tuppenny, said: “So how do I feel about 'freedom day'? Cautious, really cautious. My personal feelings are that we should stop calling it ‘freedom day’. It’s ‘take your personal responsibility seriously day.'

"What I don't want to see are great throngs of people not respecting each other. As a rule, our customers are outstanding and sensible people, and I would personally like to see them policing themselves rather than that job being left down to me.

"I hope that people are sensible with how they congregate in public spaces. I want everyone to be really diligent with their actions because I'm really keen to stay open and not have another lockdown.

"I am very proud of my work and my team. We are an extremely covid aware business and our customers appreciate the levels we have gone to, in order to make our establishment safe. I hope that our patrons do not feel that all our hard work has been undone when lockdown restrictions lift on the 19th."

Mr Stapleton calling a future lockdown a "very real and present threat", he continued: "We lost Christmas last year. For us in this industry, December is such a massive trading month, and I do not want another winter lockdown because we did not get it right in the Summer."

The Tuppenny co owner also has strong feelings about the Government and in particular, Boris Johnson. He said: "Our prime minister stood up in parliament and said something along the lines of 'we're just going to have to take it on the chin that there are going to be more deaths.' I think this is a disgusting attitude."

Two publicans with a different mindset are The Hop's father and son ownership team, Jason and Ben Putt. The pair are eager for the lockdown restrictions and welcome 'freedom day' with open arms.

Ben Putt said: "It's a relief. It's been a difficult year and we already had a false start with this 'freedom day' as we were expecting it last month."

Jason interjected that he thought 'freedom day' was an "unfortunate name" and feels it is taunting, especially as they sell 'Freedom lager'.

Ben Putt continued: "We needed to go back to being any form of a profitable business because at the moment, we cannot. I'm definitely feeling relief, and a little bit of excitment."

"You get regulars coming in and they have to be tucked away in the corner away from us. It will be nice to have them sat back at the bar and have our barmen return to being barmen and not just drinks dispensers.

"The sense of community is really important in our establishment as probably 75% of our customers are regulars. When you're working table service, you don't really get a chance to speak to anyone and the only time you really see people is on the off chance they walk past you."

Jason Putt added: "And then you struggle to recognise anyone because they have a face mask on."

The Putts are struggling with the financial as well as social aspects of lockdown.

Jason said: "I have not sat down with a calculator, but it's probably costing us about a thousand pounds a week in wages. It's a lot of money when the business cannot operate at full capacity. There might be problems with restrictions being lifted but it's got to be done sooner or later and I think the high number of people receiving their vaccines takes some of that worry away." 

Ben Putt said: "We can deal with more customers coming in better, with the bar being open and not being restricted to table service."

The father and son team are excited by the prospect of bringing back larger scale events such as live music and beer festivals. They also plan to open a food service option within the establishment.

Ben continued: "So far we have had to be conservative with events. We have done music events and smaller beer festivals but lockdown is limiting. The lifting of restrictions will allow us to pursue other streams of revenue that we have not been able to do fully so far." 

The Plough's owner, Tracy Davis and barmaid Lucy Waiters are cautious. Tracy took over the pub last October and has been operating under lockdown restrictions from the beginning. 

She commented: "It's strange one. I'll be totally honest, I quite like how it is at the moment. We are in control and make the decisions on who is coming in and out of the building.

"Perhaps we have been a bit spoilt with the luxury of all this control but this pub is my home and we have spent a lot of money decorating and refurbishing. To suddenly start letting people back in here to do what they want and being five deep at the bar, that's worrying.

"I don't think people are going to behave, personally. After seeing some of the footage from football games in other pubs, I wouldn't say I'm too excited. People now just want to get back to normal and three pints in and they can forget what they're doing."

Lucy Waiters added: "During lockdown, customers have been extra nice and I think it is because they are getting more of a service."

As people enter the pub, they can see the team's efforts to allow adequate seating, spaced at a safe distance. When asked about the continuation of table service the owner said: "We don't know what is going to happen. Do we suddenly take away all our tables because it is going to go back to the old days and it's going to be a free for all? 

"We do live music every Saturday at 8pm and that is going to be a different experience after July 19. At the moment everyone books tables just to see the music. I'm wondering whether this will continue when you might have people stood all around you."

Lucy added: "We can't say 'no you have to sit down because others feel uncomfortable' because they will be within their own right to stand and wander round."

Both feel The Plough's quiz night on Tuesdays at 7:30pm could also pose the same dilemma.