Businesses react after being forced to close following Tier 4 coronavirus restrictions

"Our revenues have just been decimated"

IT will be a rough end to 2020 for many West Berkshire businesses after the district was plunged into Tier 4.

The new restrictions – which were introduced on Saturday after a rapid rise in positive coronavirus tests – prevent all but essential retail from opening.

Non-essential shops, hairdressers, and leisure and entertainment venues must close, and the ‘stay at home’ message has been reintroduced.

Karen Dawson, operations director of The Vineyard Group, which runs The Vineyard hotel in Newbury and Donnington Valley hotel and spa, said their revenues had been “decimated”.

She said: “The major impact is the huge loss of revenue we’ve had across the board, and one of the biggest challenges has been understanding and adapting to the changes to the rules and regulations, which is so confusing.

“Christmas is a write off, just non-existent.

“By this time we would normally have fed over 1,000 guests.

“As a group, our revenues have just been decimated.

“December will be 75 per cent down on previous years.

“We’ve got a minimum of staff in and desperately trying to incur minimum costs and make savings everywhere.

“Unfortunately, sadly, earlier in the year we did make a significant number of redundancies across the hotels and who knows what January will bring us.”

However it’s not just restaurants and hotels that have been hit hard.

Newbury’s newest entertainment venue High Score opened its doors to the public just under three weeks ago on Friday, December 4, but has now been forced to temporarily shut.

For the family-friendly arcade, it is ‘game paused’ rather than ‘game over’.

Director Aaron Gilbey said hundreds of bookings have either been rebooked or refunded, and that the arcade would reopen as soon as it gets the green light.

He said: “We’re obviously disappointed as we’re two weekends in and it’s been a really good start to the new business – it seems people are really enjoying the experience we’re delivering.

“We’ll be here – we’re not going anywhere. It’s out of our hands. We’re offering everyone a chance to rebook, or refund if that’s what they prefer.

“For us it’s not game over, it’s game paused. We’ll be back in the new year.

“There’s no booking option on our website at the moment – just sign up to our mail, watch our social channels and as soon as we get the green light to open again, we’ll put that out and guests can go online and book, or reach out to us.”

Similarly, gyms across West Berkshire have been forced rack the weights for the foreseeable future.

One of those affected is bstFitness in Newbury.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “Like most businesses finding themselves in Tier 4, we are bitterly upset and frustrated at having to close the club again.

“It’s yet another enormous blow for the charity.

“As well as missing our members, almost all the staff now find themselves on furlough again just ahead of Christmas as we attempt to mitigate the charity’s losses as far as possible.

“We hope that this closure is a short-term, temporary measure and we eagerly await the review of the tiers.”