Southport BID is reminding people that the vast majority of Southport businesses remain open as new Coronavirus restrictions come into place this week.


On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Southport and the rest of the Liverpool City Region will become the first area in the country to move into the new Tier Three restrictions.


This will see the closure of some businesses from Wednesday 14 October, such as indoor gyms, fitness studios, dance studios, sports facilities, leisure centres, betting shops, adult gaming centres and casinos.


Pubs and bars can remain open, but only where they operate as if they were a restaurant – which means serving substantial meals, like a main lunchtime or evening meal. They may only serve alcohol as part of such a meal.


Southport BID CEO Rachel Fitzgerald said: “Despite these new restrictions, the vast majority of the businesses in Southport will remain open.


“This includes our fantastic choice of shops, our restaurants, our beauty salons, hairdressers and barbers, many of our pubs which serve food, and others too.
“A great number of our businesses have successfully remained open throughout the whole of this pandemic with others reopening safely this Summer.


“Southport BID has been working very closely with venues across town to help ensure that they are fully Covid safe and have all the correct safety measures in place.


“Our local businesses have put huge amounts of effort and time into operating safely, ensuring that customers and diners can social distance.


“We want to continue to reassure everyone that they can shop and dine out in Southport with full confidence.


“It is devastating to see great businesses forced to close again, but we hope this will be a very temporary measure and that they will be back open again soon.


“Financial support for those businesses and their staff members has been made available by the Government. We are aware that there is huge concern that these measures do not go far enough.


“We are ensuring these concerns, along with other BIDs nationally, are shared with National BID bodies who are working with central Government to negotiate wider support.


“We are happy to help any of the businesses in the Southport BID area which need advice, and will continue to keep businesses updated on changes as they happen through our website and social media.


“It is more important than ever that local people keep taking advantage of all that our town has to offer and support our local independents if they are to survive.


“We can still enjoy lunch with our household groups, or get take away coffees and take a walk with a friend and we can most certainly still start our Christmas shopping and enjoy being in a safe, open air town.”


Southport BID has recently launched the new Southport Gift Card as a way of encouraging people to support local businesses. For more details please visit:
https://southportbid.com/southport-gift-card/