Wigan hospitality businesses speak of Tier 3 impact

The owner of Hindley restaurant Summat to Ate described the move as a “hammer blow” and said the hospitality sector was not being supported enough by the Government.

While Wigan town centre cafe The Courtyard will wrap up its business for the year this weekend, saying it simply cannot keep going under Tier 3.

Kai Binder, the owner of Summat to Ate who also owns the Kore bar in Hindley, also questioned how the decision to keep Greater Manchester in the highest tier had been made.

He said: “Tier 3 is a disastrous end to a disastrous year. It’s even more so the case for Kore, which was going to struggle in Tier 2.

“I had resigned myself to being in Tier 3 because otherwise I don’t think I would have been able to take it.

“It is a hammer blow. Tier 3 is devastating for hospitality.

“The support grants from the Government are absolutely abysmal. Summat to Ate gets £1500 per month but first time round it was £25,000 for three months.

“We’ve also got two VAT payments to make in January, the current one and a deferred one. People simply won’t be able to keep up with their tax bills, especially where premises are rented.

“We’re lucky because we own the properties but places with rents are haemorrhaging money.

“We don’t want Government grants, support or furlough, we want to trade. I find the reasoning very difficult to understand. We’re in Tier 3 but it seems the rates are down, hospital admissions are down and the R rate is down.”

Mr Binder said Summat to Ate had had less than a month of more or less unrestricted trade since mid-March.

Meanwhile Jaxons Court venue The Courtyard has announced that Saturday will be its last day of business this year.

James Derbyshire said: “It has been a really difficult last four to six weeks for us. It’s hard to get people here in the town centre during the day for collections.

“It feels like I’ve been constantly begging on social media for people to place orders.

“Our staff need to know what’s going on so we’ve taken the decision to shut for the rest of the year.

“Everybody’s struggling. We’ve got a loyal customer base but some of them now haven’t got jobs and we haven’t seen them as much.

“We’ve been just about covering the bills since March and we don’t know how long this is going to go on for. I am worried about January, February and March.

“The uncertainty is hard to take. We’re just hoping in the New Year we can get the go-ahead to open and let people back in.”

Thanks for reading. If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here and viewing our offers ..