Julian calls on City of York Council to relax planning rules to support city’s hospitality sector
June 11, 2020
Julian has written to Acting Chief Executive of City of York Council , Ian Floyd, calling for current licensing arrangements to be reviewed and planning restrictions relaxed to allow cafes, restaurant, pubs and bars to utilise space outside their premises to increase their capacity. Julian hopes that these measures will ensure far more businesses within the hospitality sector are financially viable as they reopen under restrictions on July 4.
This comes after York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership released analysis of estimated job losses for York projected from Office for Budget Responsibility data, which showed the hospitality sector would bear the brunt of redundancies. Julian strongly believes that the relaxation of planning restrictions, paired with a reduction of social distancing rules, could help avert the worst case scenario and provide businesses with enough finances to adapt, reinvest and protect jobs.
Speaking after writing to Ian Floyd, Julian said: “As we would expect, York’s economy is built heavily around the tourism and hospitality sectors with thousands of local jobs being created in our city’s pubs, cafes and restaurants. Unfortunately, it may be some time before we can expect tourism on a scale that we are used to within York but I have been impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit on display throughout the city as businesses have adapted to serving customers throughout lockdown.
Looking to our European neighbours, who have successfully welcomed the return of alfresco cafe culture safely, we must also look to review social distancing guidelines to ensure businesses can accommodate sufficient customers to be commercially viable. Germany and Holland are both adopting 1.5m for social distancing, while France and Denmark, in line with World Health Organisation guidance, have adopted 1m.
There may not seem much difference in those figures but under current social distancing measures 1 in 4 pubs would not be able to reopen where that figure drops to 1 in 10 pubs when 1m is adopted for social distancing. This would have a dramatic impact on the York economy.
Throughout the Covid-19 outbreak, the Government and local authorities have provided financial assistance to businesses to avoid job losses and to cover overheads during lockdown. In order to continue to fund public services and Government support packages, we need a strong economy; therefore we need to implement measures that allow for a profitable return of the hospitality sector in July.”
