'Pretty catastrophic year' for Whitby businesses but optimism for future

A Whitby bed and breakfast says it has been a pretty catastrophic year financially for businesses in the town.

Before the newest national lockdown, Whitby was placed into Tier 3 and before that, it was in Tier 2.

Andy Brown, co-owner of Highgate House in Whitby, said:

"It just leaves everyone kind of looking forward to another month or two of difficulty as we grind our way through it. We're all trying our best to get through it now and with it being in the winter months, it's a lot harder because people can't get out and into the fresh air.

"For the last 10 months, we've been in-and-out of lockdown, we've been in-and-out of various different tiers, we've coped with Covid security being introduced, decisions that have all been last minute and a lot of people I know have been struggling with difficulties with landlords and still having to pay rent.

"The vast majority of people in Whitby, the hospitality owners, have lost money. A few businesses have stopped and gone out of business; and even those the ones who do make it through, the investments that we've made, we're not sure what the customer base or markets are going to look like as we go forward.

"The Government grants unfortunately are not enough to counteract because of the size of the losses we've all had. But I have to say though, without the Government grants, there would have been a tsunami of businesses going out of business. There have been some and there will be some more but I think the Government grants have definitely had a big effect.

"All-in-all, it's been pretty catastrophic year from a financial perspective. It's not all bad though. I think as the vaccine rolls out, we're feeling optimistic in Whitby that from Easter onwards, we should be open and ready to welcome people back, probably with a service and a proposition that's a lot closer to what people expect.

"Whitby is one of those places that is extremely busy between Easter to around the end of October and then it goes a bit quieter, but it's still a fairly popular place during the winter; and sure enough, we did have people in the town but it was dramatically fewer than normal and now, it's predominately locals.

"Whitby's a really friendly place and I know the town is feeling a lot of pain at the moment, that we can't do what we normally do and we're facing a tough January, February and into March but we're just looking forward to getting back to normal, welcoming people and just having a lovely seaside experience. The light is at the end of the tunnel."

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