AT the start of last week the Executive announced that Northern Ireland’s hotels, bars, restaurants and cafés can conditionally reopen from Friday July 3, which is a much welcomed decision during an incredibly difficult time for the hospitality industry.
Economy Minister Diane Dodds said the developments were an important step on the road to recovery. The dates provided by the Department are subject to controlling the rate of transmission of Covid-19 and social distancing measures remaining in place.
The conditional reopening of key sectors from 3rd July include:
:: Restaurants, cafés and coffee shops;
:: Public houses and bars will be permitted to re-open for the purposes of selling food and alcohol on a table service basis. Public houses and bars with outside spaces, such as beer gardens, will be allowed to use such spaces to serve alcohol on a table service basis;
:: The relaxations also apply to hotel restaurants, bars and outdoor areas. However, spas and leisure facilities will not be permitted to open at this stage.
Despite the minister’s announcement of indicative dates being good news, it is recognised that there is a requirement for further guidance from the Department and statutory bodies, given the challenges faced.
The announcement only applies to bars that are serving food or which have outside areas and social distancing must be maintained. Further clarity is required given the current uncertainty surrounding the position of pubs who don’t serve food or don’t have outdoor spaces to serve alcohol.
Last Thursday, Belfast City Council announced the opening of a new ‘pavement café’ application process, whereby traders would be able to apply to extend their business onto public pavements or privately owned areas (with consent of the land owner).
It is now up to the other local councils to follow suit. This ‘pavement café’ legislation has until now been an underused opportunity for traders, with only one Local Council actually having successfully implemented the scheme before now.
Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has already written to all councils requesting they adopt a flexible and pragmatic planning approach to the use of on-street seating for cafés and bars, beer gardens and similar outdoor areas to accommodate physical and social distancing.
This could prove vital for the hospitality sector during the summer season by preventing unnecessary restrictions in respect of the provision of on-street facilities in order to allow social distancing.
Such changes will facilitate the recovery of the hospitality sector which has been one of the hardest hit sectors during lockdown.
In addition, leaders of the hospitality sector have advised that if the two metre social distancing restriction remains, it will not be possible for many businesses to survive.
They have therefore called for the reduction of social distancing guidelines from two metres to one metre as per the WHO guidelines.
With businesses preparing to re-open a week on Friday, and many properties having to reorganise to comply with social distancing, time is running out for clear guidance to be issued.
:: Christopher Bullock (Christopher.Bullock@oreillystewart.com) is associate solicitor (commercial) at O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors (www.oreillystewart.com) in Belfast
