Coronavirus restrictions have been brutal on Harrogate’s hospitality sector. Marik Scatchard, the landlord of Christies Bar on Kings Road, explains what it has been like running one of the town’s most popular pubs.

New Year’s Eve last year was a busy night and at that point, we had no idea how the year would turn out.

It was terrible when we got locked down in March. We had to throw about £2,000 or £3,000 worth of beer down the drain. That didn’t feel good.

We got the £25,000 grant which the government thought would see us through, but the pub company we are with charged full rent during the closure. It didn’t help us – it just helped the pub company.

I was in favour of the lockdown because nobody knew what was going to happen. The virus is not great for some people.

Because I’ve got three children in school, I’ve had two lots of having to isolate for 14 days, and we all got covid at one point. We were all alright after two or three days. I didn’t really have any symptoms. My partner was rough for three or four days. My little lad, you wouldn’t have known he had it if he didn’t have a test.

Read more:

• Harrogate pub landlord calls £1,000 grant process an ‘absolute farce’
• Harrogate district pubs were ‘praying for tier one’

During the lockdown, I went into the pub to collect post and make sure it was secure. I’ve been a landlord at Christies for 13 years but it was horrible seeing the pub empty. It’s worse now seeing it empty because, before, everywhere was closed, so you took it on the chin.

When the last lockdown happened in November, everywhere was open except hospitality. It feels like we’ve been unfairly treated compared to other sectors. All these shops are rammed but you can’t come into a pub and sit at a distance, it doesn’t make any sense.

Christies Bar, Kings Road.

But when we reopened in July, we spent a lot of money to make sure it was covid safe. We’ve had no cases in the pub and we were very busy in summer. We thought, ‘if it carries on like this, we’ll be alright for Christmas’.

We very much depend on conference trade. There are massive ones in July and September. The British and International Golf Greenkeeping Association conference is usually in January and we can take about £30,000 in just three days. That will be gone next year.

You can’t see an end to it and I don’t think we’ll be open properly until Easter. But I think trade will be good again.

As 2020 draws to a close, the Stray Ferret looks back at the news stories that stood out among a year of extraordinary events.

Today, we reveal the most popular stories on our site since we launched at the beginning of March.

10. Events company folds after 46 years

Andrew Manby, director of Joe Manby Ltd.

The tenth most-read story on our site this year was a sad one for those involved – and for many others.

After months of uncertainty for the events industry, long-standing family firm Joe Manby Ltd was put into liquidation.

Director Andrew Manby had been warning for many months about the threat to the sector, with events unable to go ahead and no sign of improvement on the horizon.

Readers and fellow business owners expressed shock and sympathy after the news was announced.

9. Eat Out to Help Out

Restaurants and cafes took part in the Eat Out to Help Out scheme

When the government scheme to encourage hospitality spending was launched, businesses in the Harrogate district signed up with enthusiasm.

Residents were also keen to show their support, as our ninth most popular story shows. With more than 100 businesses on the list, locals checked in to see where they could get a discount on dining out early in the week.

8. Six workers rescued from Ripon takeaway

In September, six people were rescued from a Ripon takeaway after local residents raised concerns about their living and working conditions.

Agencies including the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, Immigration Enforcement, Harrogate Borough Council and the police and fire service swooped on the takeaway, which was not publicly identified.

As a result, six people were placed in temporary accommodation. Officers reported several possible indicators of labour abuse but could not find any signs of modern slavery offences.

The council and the fire service said they would investigate a number of housing and fire safety issues at the property.

The story was our eighth most-read of the year.

7. Many hospitality businesses will not reopen

In his first column for the Stray Ferret, Peter Banks, MD of Rudding Park, gave an honest account of his expectations for the future of his industry.

Writing in early May, he said the first week of the pandemic’s impact was the worst of his professional life. However, in a rapidly changing climate, he soon found himself trying to work out how the hotel would reopen – and concluding that, for many, it would never happen.

The column proved hugely popular, especially with our audience on social media, and is seventh on our list of most-read stories of the year.

Today, we published Mr Banks’s reflections on the year in hospitality – including the last-minute bombshell delivered by the government to scupper plans for New Year’s Eve.

6. Long queues outside Harrogate shop after pubs close

Queues formed outside the Tesco Express shop in Harrogate’s town centre just after 10pm.

When the 10pm curfew on hospitality came in, many said it would only lead to a rush of people onto the streets all at the same time.

This appeared to be true, as the queue outside Tesco on Cambridge Road showed on Saturday, October 24 just after 10pm.

The same happened again the following week, and both stories proved popular with local readers. It’s at number six on our list.

5. Harrogate district to enter tier two restrictions

As the second national lockdown ended in early December, the decision about which tier the Harrogate district would be placed in drew a lot of attention.

Readers were eager to find out what restrictions they would face – and local businesses were also keen to know if they could open and trade in the vital few weeks before Christmas.

The story was the fifth most-read of the year. Yesterday’s announcement of the district’s move into tier three from New Year’s Eve is the most-read story in December.

4. Coach and Horses has alcohol licence revoked

Police were called to the Coach and Horses pub by concerned locals in May

In July, long-standing West Park pub the Coach and Horses had its alcohol licence revoked by Harrogate Borough Council after a dispute over their compliance with lockdown rules in May.

The pub opened to sell take-out beer, but as crowds gathered on the pavement and across the road by the Stray, police and council enforcement staff arrived.

Their accounts of the situation suggested landlord John Nelson had been “aggressive and abusive”, though at the licensing hearing his lawyer said he accepted he had made a “chronic error of judgement”.

The committee revoked Mr Nelson’s licence with the support of North Yorkshire Police, and the report on the decision was our fourth most read story of the year.

Three months later, his daughter Samantha was successful in her application for a licence to reopen the pub.

3. Police attend serious incident near Harrogate town centre

A man died and another was treated in hospital after an incident on Harcourt Drive, on the edge of Harrogate town centre.

On a quiet Sunday evening in late August, the incident shocked neighbours and the wider community. It was the third most read story of 2020 on our website.

Police later confirmed the incident was not being treated as suspicious and an inquest would be held to examine the circumstances of the man’s death.

2. Harrogate’s Stray FM to close

Owners Greatest Hits Radio announced the end of Stray FM in May

Residents of the district were shocked by the announcement in May that Stray FM would be disappearing from the airwaves.

Though owners Greatest Hits Radio described the plans as a ‘rebrand’, the reality was that there would be mostly national programming on the station from September, with one regional show each day at drivetime.

As well as the ending of a familiar brand established in 1994, community groups expressed their sadness at the loss of the station’s valuable support.

The announcement of the plans was our second most-read story of 2020.

1. Town centre roads closed by police

Police closed off Mayfield Grove junction with Bower Road. Picture: Sharon Canavar.

A police incident near the centre of town on a Friday afternoon drew our biggest audience of the year.

A man was arrested for saying he had a knife and making threats to other residents.

Officers closed a number of roads around Strawberry Dale while they dealt with the situation, leading to congestion on surrounding routes. The roads were reopened after around 90 minutes.

A second man was arrested for obstructing the police, separately to the original incident.

Read more:

• Looking back: Happiness in Harrogate district amid the challenges of 2020
• Looking back: Clap for carers and scrubbing up for key workers

In the latest in our series of personal reflections, Peter Banks, managing director of Rudding Park, takes us through the radical changes of his year.

January

Reports of an Epidemic in China. We seemed to think it was a purely Chinese problem.

I attend the Hotel General Managers conference in London on January 20-21; the key note speaker was a futurologist, some bloke who is supposed to be able to tell us what the trends and issues are coming in the future. Not ONE mention of a global pandemic – some futurologist he was. I wonder if I’d get my money back……..

February

Italy suffers really badly with overflowing hospitals and whole towns shut down. We still allow our population to go skiing to Italy. We watch in horrified fascination, a sort of voyeuristic “rubber-necking” at a crash on the motorway. We still refuse to believe it will happen to us.

March

Spain and France are the next countries to suffer and impose severe lockdown and curfews. We follow the “herd immunity” theory and allow Cheltenham races and European football matches to go ahead.

March 16 – Boris throws the hospitality industry under the bus when he tells the population not to go to pubs, restaurants or hotels. 500,000 hospitality jobs lost in one week as a tsunami of cancellations hits us. I convince all of my team to take a 40% pay cut to see us through to the end of June.

March 20 – Guests are leaving on the Friday night, in tears, telling me I should be shut now. The feeling is of a country on the verge of a war.

March 21 – I close the gates of Rudding and the hard work really starts as we try to contact every guest and alter their arrival dates. We try to move dates rather than refund as we are not sure how long we will stay cash liquid.

Rudding Park closes its gates as the coronavirus lockdown approaches

March 23 – Rishi comes to the rescue with the incredibly generous furlough scheme that saves millions of hospitality jobs and means that my team only need to take a 20% cut.

April

We have a skeleton team staying in the hotel for security, grass cutting and fire. I stay one week and start feeling like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Less “Here’s Johnny!”, more “Here’s Banksy!”. Two of my team start a 100-day stint staying in the hotel. Respect.

We start talking with the bank for CBILS loans and overdrafts. I redo the budget four times before it is satisfactory. Frankly it’s all guesswork anyway as we have no clarity, no plan and no communication from the government. I imagine they are even more up to their necks in it than I am. The daily briefings become a depressing tally of cases and deaths, but there seems to be no clear planned escape route.

The weather is amazing, we would have been heaving at the golf, spa and terrace if we had been open. Heartbreaking. We start taking bets that when we reopen it will start raining.

May

I start going a little crazy as I am not shaving, polishing my shoes or ironing a shirt. This way lies madness so I start coming in to work every morning – in my suit, polished Oxfords and clean-shaven.

We reopen the golf on the May 14, and are given 24 hours to get the course open. Boris announces this in a sort of “off the cuff” manner on Sunday night. Great planning and great communication. Not.

June

Four balls allowed, I have my first contact from the EHO about the external bar at the golf. Apparently guests can bring their own beer from Sainsbury’s and drink it in the car park, or I can sell them beer and they can drink it on the side of the road. I can’t however sell them beer and they drink it on our terrace, or spread all over the estate. Social distance is possible over 200 acres, surely? Apparently not. Them’s the rules.

We try to keep our team engaged with volunteering for Ripon Walled Garden and the “Rudding Pop-up Litter Pick”. We collect over a tonne of rubbish from around Harrogate by hand.

Rudding Park staff went out litter-picking in the summer

July

Hallelujah!!!! We are open!!!

July 4 – Holiday Park reopens.

July 14 – Hotel reopens.

July 25 – Spa reopens.

We have planned and implemented so many Covid secure ways of operating: masks, visors, temperature checkers, apps, sterile cutlery bags, staggered dining times, online check in and out – the list is endless.

Staff return to work in a panic. They don’t know what they are allowed to do, are afraid of talking to guests – daily tears are the order of the day.

Guests are delighted to be back, and are very understanding. I (foolishly) hope that this will be a sea change in guest behaviour towards staff. This good behaviour lasts about two weeks before usual service is resumed. Silly old me, ever the optimist.

August

Steam rooms and saunas are still closed by law. This apparently is our fault and guests get really annoyed. I suggest that they write to Mr B Johnson, 10 Downing St, London WC1.

The world goes mad with the “Eat Out to Help Out” scheme. A month ago we weren’t allowed to see each other, now we are encouraging restaurants and pubs to be full. The irony! Still, we have to join in as we have to take the opportunity to make some money as the bank still needs paying.

Rishi announces a 5% VAT rate on food and accommodation. Tremendously generous and is the difference between many hospitality businesses being solvent or going bust.

September and October

The incredible demand continues and we are so busy. Some guests are Covid deniers and swear and shout at staff when we ask them to wear a mask or tell them what the “rule of six” means. Guests book two separate tables of six and then push the tables together.

The ridiculous curfew starts. Most guests behave and go to bed, some bend the rules by ordering room service drinks, then walking out of their bedroom and sitting in public areas in the hotel. Guests complain, swear and shout when we try to enforce the curfew. Again, a lack of clarity. I wonder whether the government actually asked an hospitality operator how these rules would work in practice. Somehow I doubt it.

November

Here we go again. Closed on November 4. This lockdown is not a real lockdown however – more of a just hospitality and retail closed. We use the time to refurbish the Clocktower restaurant – we can make as much noise as we want and not disturb guests.

December

The impenetrable tier system starts. Guests in Tier 3 are “advised” not to travel, but it is not illegal. This creates great confusion for guests: are they allowed to stay or not? We tell guests that they are “advised” not to travel, but we are open. The Government needs to make some unpopular decisions, that’s what leadership is about sometimes – you can’t always be everyone’s mate.

December 20 – The new variant is announced and the Government is finally forced into making an unpopular decision. At last he acts like a real leader. We have 45 rooms cancel for Christmas, but at least it’s clear. At last the communication is getting better.

We planned a different New Year’s Eve at Rudding. Because of the curfew we decide to be creative and change time! We will give every guest a watch with the time set two hours forward so that 10pm GMT is 12pm RPT (Rudding Park Time)!!! Therefore Champagne and pipers can happen within the rules at Rudding!

December 30 – Well this really is the icing on the cake. Nine hours’ notice to close as we go into Tier 3 at Midnight tonight. New Year’s Eve we should have been full. All of the food (turbot, venison fillet, lobster) all wasted, the time spent preparing the dishes, the administration of New Year’s Eve, The watches, the recovery packs, the marketing collateral for our Rudding Park Time – all wasted. They must have known this was going to happen, but to give us nine hours’ notice? I understand the danger of the virus – but a little more notice would have been appreciated. Nine hours? Really? If I ran a company like this – I would be out of a job – pronto. For a year of poor planning and poor communication this has got to be the absolute gold star award. No wonder the Prime Minister got Matt Hancock to deliver the news. Poor old Matt – always Boris’s Stooge…….

We decide to have New Year’s Eve on December 30, rather than 31. They might have cancelled New Year’s Eve, but not at Rudding!!!!! Music, balloons, time change, smoke machines, Champagne – this is our Dunkirk, I reckon.

Overall, a chastening year – battered, but still standing. Still trying to look after our guests, trying to understand the impenetrable fog of directives coming from government and trying to tread the thin line between financial success and failure.

What a year. Leadership, Communication and Resilience have been the watchwords of the hospitality industry.

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt in 35 years at the sharp end of hospitality, it’s that no matter how bad today has been – the world will continue to turn, the sun will come up. The key is how we frame tomorrow. As leaders that is our responsibility – let’s kick 2020 into touch and frame 2021 with energy, enthusiasm and positivity.

Bring it on.

As 2020 draws to a close, the Stray Ferret looks back at the news stories that stood out among a year of extraordinary events. 

Today, we focus on the impact on businesses, from high street to hospitality.

For most business owners, it has been a very worrying and difficult year. From moving their staff to home working to switching to delivery or click and collect, businesses have adapted to constantly changing rules in order to survive the last 10 months. 

For some, though, it has been more challenging than others.  

Among the industries to suffer most in 2020 were events and hospitality. Bars and restaurants found themselves in and out of lockdown, posing huge problems for planning and ordering supplies.  

What made it all the more difficult was the continuing use of Harrogate Convention Centre as the NHS Nightingale. In a district economy which relies heavily on tourism and events, hospitality businesses found their income drastically below what it would usually be. 

Reopening ‘vital’

As the first lockdown eased, some of the district’s major employers were emphasising just how vital it would be for them to reopen and to receive support from the public. 

When news came that the Nightingale would remain in place, preventing events from being held even if restrictions were eased, it was a blow to the sector. 

Major events were postponed and called off for many months ahead, leaving businesses staring at a blank calendar for the foreseeable future. Among the casualties in hospitality were the Country Living St George Hotel, Ripon Spa Hotel, and The Old Deanery, which announced it will close its doors next summer. The Kimberley Hotel also announced its closure in December.

Restaurants were not immune to the challenges of the trading environment, with Harrogate’s Bistrot Pierre and Las Iguanas among the big names failing to reopen their doors.

It made one leading hotel manager’s prediction of ‘carnage’ in May look worryingly prescient – and with uncertainty still ahead, it’s likely we haven’t heard the last of the closures as the new year approaches.

Events industry

Events businesses, meanwhile, were unable to trade at all, spelling the end for one of Harrogate’s longest-established names. 

Joe Manby Ltd was well known for helping to stage events at the convention centre, as well as elsewhere around the country. Andrew Manby, a director of the family firm established in the 1970s, had warned repeatedly that more support was needed for companies unable to trade because of restrictions.  

In October, with no sign of improvement ahead, the company announced it would go into liquidation. 

Cambridge Street in Harrogate was looking busier in the run-up to Christmas

There were casualties on the high street, too, with several big-name brands announcing they would be closing branches in our district, along with long-standing independent businesses.  Among those lost were AP&K Stothard’s pet shop, The Bookstall newsagent at Harrogate railway station, Edinburgh Wooden Mill and Ponden Home in Ripon, Wren’s department store, and menswear shop Jon Barrie. 

Yet it wasn’t all bad news. For some determined entrepreneurs, the pandemic was no reason not to make their business dreams a reality – including a new taco business and a travel agent.

From music to clothes shops and even a pop-up bakery, Knaresborough seemed like the place to be in the second half of the year. It also saw a pop-up from popular Harrogate bakery Baltzersen’s. 

Nevertheless, uncertainty remained, and the second lockdown left owners desperate to know whether they would be able to reopen in time for Christmas. 

The district’s tier two restrictions meant they were able to do so in early December, aiming to make the most of the final few weeks of trading. Residents can only hope it was enough to get their favourite businesses through the coming weeks and months until the situation begins to improve. 

Read more:

• Looking back: Clap for carers and scrubbing up for key workers
• Looking back: Extraordinary effort to build a Nightingale hospital in Harrogate

A Harrogate hotel has said it has been dealt a devastating blow by being forced to close, just days after investing in a new Winter Wonderland Teepee.

The Majestic Hotel on Ripon Road hoped to offer a family-friendly dining experience with Christmas market-style food.

It had taken more that 400 bookings in the last week alone but will now need to close its doors for at least a month.

Read more:

• Teepee promises winter wonderland in Harrogate
• Zen garden completed at new Harrogate spa
• Harrogate couple cancel wedding for third time

Andy Barnsdale, DoubleTree by Hilton Harrogate Majestic Hotel & Spa general manager, said:

“Going into a second lockdown is a devastating blow for the hospitality industry, particularly as we are entering our busiest period.

“In the three days that it was open it was a great success. The majority of those visited were Harrogate residents. It offered a bit of winter cheer in these difficult times and the atmosphere was great.”

The hotel had brought back all its staff from furlough in August and has said it will now put the majority back on the furlough scheme.

It will now look at options such as providing rooms for key workers and those who need to work away from home.

The impact of the second lockdown on local businesses could mean some “won’t reopen” warns Harrogate’s Business Investment District (BID) .

The lockdown will come into place on Thursday and forces all non-essential shops and hospitality to close.

Many of Harrogate’s businesses have been using recent months to recover from the previous lockdown and have now been left uncertain of their futures.

Harrogate BID has said the main aim of its members is to protect their businesses and the local economy but has made it clear the long-term impact of this could mean some businesses can’t reopen.

Harrogate BID Acting Chair Sara Ferguson said:

“Every business that I know of has been dreading the prospect of another lockdown, as there’s a real chance many won’t reopen if they are forced into a long period of enforced closure.

“Over the last few weeks there has been a rising level of optimism, half term has brought plenty of people into town. If this ‘circuit-breaker’ doesn’t bring the R rate down then what? Is it extended for another month?”

Read More:

• 71 more positive covid cases in the past 24 hours in Harrogate district
• Harrogate retailer says second lockdown could be devastating 

The lockdown is expected to end on December 2 in the hope many can still enjoy Christmas with friends and family.

The festive season brings an annual boost to trade for the hospitality sector.

Anthony Blundell, assistant general manager at the West Park Hotel in Harrogate, is hopeful this year will bring the same.

He said:

“Hospitality needs to be up and running for December. It is the biggest month of the year for the whole sector. We can flex and adapt to whatever is thrown at us but not all businesses are as resilient and it could be really devastating.”

This has been a difficult year for the hospitality sector, but Rick Jones, who owns Valentino’s and the Water Rat, has his eyes on the longer-term picture.

The closure of Ripon’s Spa Hotel, quickly followed by news that The Old Deanery will be closing in early 2021, are indicators of hard times for hoteliers.

So the question arises – Is this a good time to invest £500,000 refurbishing a restaurant and creating bedroom space on your premises?

For Rick, who was born and bred in Ripon, the answer was an emphatic ‘yes’.

He told the Stray Ferret:

“Rather than spending my time panicking about the pandemic, I decided to invest in my business, so that we will be in good shape when the coronavirus crisis is behind us.

“You can either get yourself stuck in a lockdown mentality or look forward and have faith in Ripon’s future.”

Rick is an optimist, who has faced and overcome potential calamity before.

When he took charge of the Water Rat restaurant pub in 2007, he had to act quickly to prevent the waters of a flooded River Skell from washing away the trade at his newly-acquired venture.

The Lazio suite at Valentino’s

Having saved the drowned Water Rat 13 years ago and remodelled it, the experience gained has proved invaluable in the reconfiguration of Valentino’s, where the sign on the wall reads ‘Restaurant with Rooms.’

Rick’s confidence would appear well-founded.

Since its reopening in early July the restaurant, with its Roman-style food, has proved popular with diners.

Read more:

• Hotel closures are blow to tourism in Ripon
• Market traders receive unexpected payment
• Council’s £65,000 plan to light up Ripon

There has  always been a need to book in advance, but even more so now, with social distancing measures meaning that the number of tables has had to be reduced.

Literally building on the venue’s popularity and carrying the Italian theme throughout the Westgate premises, Valentino’s is now offering five newly-opened en-suite bedrooms ranging from the £120 per night Toscana room for two people, to the £190 per night Lazio suite sleeping up to four.

Last month, people in charge of tourist and heritage attractions in the city expressed concerns about the possible impact that the loss of hotel bed spaces could have on visitor numbers.

Rick believes that the Valentino’s development will go some way towards redressing the balance. He pointed out:

“Each of the rooms has been designed to have its own individual look and feel and we hope that they will appeal to people who want to come to enjoy the attractions of Ripon and the wider area.”

A share of £14,000 in grants has been handed out to businesses in Harrogate town centre to help them reopen after the coronavirus lockdown.

Harrogate BID has offered a match-funded grant of £750 for vital equipment – and so far, 27 companies have taken up the offer.

The funds must be spent on signage, barriers, screens and other safety equipment. Sanitiser is not included on the list.

More than a quarter of the £20,000 of funding is still available, taken from the BID’s annual income which comes from a levy on business rates paid by town centre businesses over a certain rateable value.

Harrogate BID acting chair Sara Ferguson said:

“Businesses have been through an awful lot since mid-March’s lockdown, and I’m pleased that the BID is able to offer financial assistant to levy payers to be able to reopen.

“The town centre is home to a wide range of businesses, who employ a large number of staff from across the district.”

Submissions from levy payers must include a brief description of equipment already purchased, what they are in the process of buying, plus receipts, estimated delivery dates and expected costs. Grants are not restricted to retail and hospitality businesses.

Levy payers can apply for the funding by emailing info@harrogatebid.co.uk, and find out more by visiting the Harrogate BID website.

One of the UK’s fastest-growing restaurant operators will be opening in Ripon and bringing 25 new jobs to the city.

Loungers UK, which owns the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, is currently refurbishing a building in Market Place, next to Ripon Town Hall, and the opening of the premises will add to the Bristol-based company’s portfolio of approximately 150 sites in England and Wales.

Gemma Irwin, community manager for The Lounges, told the Stray Ferret:

“We will recruit around 25 local people and hope to quickly become part of Ripon’s community.”

With refurbishment work currently under way to transform the former NatWest bank premises, an opening date is yet to be confirmed.

The premises acquired by the Loungers Group, is in a prime location next to Ripon Town Hall

The Ripon opening is part of a growth strategy announced by the company last year, in which it said it is:

“Targeting 25 new site openings per annum over the medium term, of which approximately 20 are expected to be Lounges and approximately five are expected to be Cosy Clubs.”

Read more:

• See how a Ripon entrepreneur’s dreams are coming true
• How did diversification help a Ripon pie maker?

The company, founded in 2002, was valued at £185 million before its listing on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM) which lists smaller growing businesses.

With the hospitality sector hit hard by the coronavirus lockdown in March, which saw all of its restaurants temporarily closed, Loungers secured a £15million revolving credit facility from its banks for an 18-month period, designed to assist the company during the covid 19 disruption and help it if the pandemic impacts sales into next year.

Loungers was founded by friends Dave Reid, Alex Reilley and Jake Bishop, who wanted to create a neighbourhood café-bar that they would want to go into themselves.

The trio, all of whom had previous experience of working in the restaurant and bar trade, opened their first venture in Bristol in premises formerly occupied by an opticians.

Over the past 18 years, the Loungers Group has become an all-day operator of scale in the UK and has outperformed the wider UK hospitality sector over the past three years in terms of growth.

A top Harrogate hotelier has said he hopes that a cut in VAT for the sector and a discount on sit down meals will help to generate demand.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced today that VAT for the sector will be cut by 15% for six months and a 50% discount for sit down meals from Monday to Wednesday for the whole of August.

The sector is worth a reported £200 million to Harrogate and employs around 9,500 people across the district.

Peter Banks, managing director of Rudding Park Hotel and Spa and chairman of Harrogate Hospitality and Tourism Association, said the measures were good news for the sector which has bore the brunt of lockdown.

Read more:

• Harrogate estate agent relieved at stamp duty holiday
• Last Harrogate street to be pedestrianised to help bars
• Hospitality reopening crucial for Harrogate after tough lockdown

He said:

“It’s great news if it generates demand for us.

“The discount was very creative and I’m going to have to get my head around the announcement and come up with marketing strategies.

“So far the response has been very good to reopening our pub.”

The move comes as restaurants, bars and cafes reopened across the Harrogate District this past weekend after three months of lockdown.

The measures by Mr Sunak are the latest effort to get the sector, which saw 80% of businesses across the UK temporarily stop trading during lockdown, back up and running.

Local authorities in the Harrogate District have already moved to create more space outside bars and restaurants to increase capacity.

But industry owners have already warned that businesses will have to take advantage of the remaining summer months in order to survive a “tough winter” period.

Harrogate Borough Council leader, Richard Cooper, warned earlier this week that some businesses will not survive the impending economic downturn.