The government recently announced that travel restrictions would start to be relaxed from 26 April, with flights to and from the UK due to resume.
However, as part of the government’s Covid roadmap for easing restrictions, nightclubs will not be able to open until 14 June.
Meanwhile, nightclubs in Guernsey reopened this week as the neighbouring Island moved into stage three of its lockdown exit strategy, which also sees the removal of social distancing and the reintroduction of the travel corridor within the Bailiwick.
Chris Tanguy, owner of Tanguy’s nightclub and bar, said he believed the Island’s night-life industry had been treated ‘poorly’ by the government and added that it was ‘unfair’ that the borders would open while some businesses remained closed.
‘We have been let down time and again by this government. We constantly fall on deaf ears,’ he said.
‘All it takes is one family to catch Covid and then come back from holiday and the whole hospitality industry will be closed again. Meanwhile, we will get told to close before we have even reopened.’
Mr Tanguy has been able to operate his business for only two months throughout the past year and said the reopening of borders threatened to keep him closed past June.
‘The government talk about putting the economy first and if that is so, then why not let everything reopen locally before letting the outside world back in?
‘Guernsey have managed to get back to normal and have no cases. We only have four, so why can we not follow suit?’
Martin Sayers, owner of Vittoria nightclub, said the decision to reopen borders before nightclubs was ‘insensitive’ and ‘insulting’ to the industry.
‘People’s livelihoods are still being decimated by the pandemic and yet our borders are going to open and increase the risk of one of the many Covid variants entering the Island.’
He added: ‘Ministers are running before they can walk. There are still people suffering in the Island and we should be focusing on supporting them.’
Mr Sayers said that the financial support available to the industry throughout the pandemic had not been enough.
The government recently opened applications for its Visitor Attraction and Events Support Scheme 2, which is designed to cover a percentage of events businesses’ fixed costs, as they have not been able to operate in any meaningful way since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
The scheme replaces the original VAES, which was not deemed fit for purpose as only a small fraction of businesses in the industry qualified for the support.
However, the VAES 2 only provides support from the start of January 2021.
Mr Sayers added: ‘If you won’t let us reopen, then at least support us. There is no point in backdating support from January. What about the other nine months we were closed?’
Meanwhile, JP Anquetil, owner of Rojo nightclub, questioned why the government had not followed a similar approach to Guernsey.
‘Why can’t we keep things internal and have a normal summer over here with clubs and events running before we think about opening the borders?’ he asked.
‘A lot of people will be scared that they can open up but will then have to close again if we see a spike in cases as a result of inbound travel.
‘If we are going to let people in then we need to make sure they go straight into isolation and do not come out until they test negative so that we minimise the risk of spreading
Covid into our community.’
