Cafe owner near Whitby 'looking forward' to easing of restrictions
The owner of the Sandside Cafe in Sandsend says he is looking forward to lockdown restrictions easing next week.
A business owner near Whitby says he is looking forward to lockdown restrictions easing next week.
It is as many hospitality venues are able to serve customers outside from Monday.
Neil Hodgson runs the Sandside Cafe in Sandsend and said:
"It's been a difficult year with a lot of highs and lows. We were sort of thrown into it and we didn't have a lot of information for a start but after that we sort of struggled by. We got help from our local council and information started flowing so we knew what we had to do to open up after lockdown.
"I think it's just been the hardship of managing staff, explaining to staff and explaining to customers as well trying to educate them, even though it's been out there in the media, that it's come to ourselves and our staff to sort of explain to people in depth what they should and shouldn't be doing.
"On the whole, we're looking forward to next Monday. It isn't such a shock this time. We're educated hopefully and we can pass our thoughts and knowledge onto people and I think we're looking forward to coming out of a really grey, cold and dark winter.
"We've had to up obviously on our takeaway side. We've had to totally re-think how we work and how we operate; for instance we've started like a phone and collect service, pre-bookings, same day bookings and we've opened a second hatch for quicker service to bring queues down.
"We've invested in more staff to work outside as marshals. Our local people and community were really good and sort of gave us things that we'd miss so we took on board a lot of people's views. We didn't do any reinventions but we progressed with good attitudes from local people.
"It's patience and respect. I think they're the two main things that I'd like to see ourselves and people who come into our county to just have. It's just common respect and respect for themselves as well as others."