People in Lancashire can enjoy a pint in a beer garden from today

It's the day thousands of people have been waiting for...beer gardens, hairdressers and shops across Lancashire are re-opening from today.

It's the next step in the government's phased exit out of lockdown.

Outdoor theme parks, zoos, gyms and nail salons can also start welcoming people back from today.

Public buildings such as libraries and community centres can also re-open as well as campsites and holiday lets, where indoor facilities are not shared with other households.

The number of people able to attend weddings, receptions and commemorative events such as wakes will also rise to 15.

Andy Mac runs The Ships and Giggles pub in Preston, he said: "My goodness, words cannot describe, how excited I am for opening. It has been so long, I'm even nervous about whether I'm going to remember what I'm supposed to do but I think I'm on top of things!

"We've been keeping busy, we've re-furbished it again and I just can't wait to have customers in there enjoying themselves.

"The feeling I'm most excited about is just before we open and I've got my full team ready to crack on, I've got my security there - my friendly happy Henry on the door - and then when the customers start walking in it's a feeling you can't really describe, but it's about time and we've been waiting a long time for this.

Andy said they're praying it's the last time they ever have to shut their doors because of the pandemic: "I don't think we can go through another one, it's been scary...you don't realise the position you can be in when you don't have your business open for a year. The money that you owe and the debt that you need to re-cooperate...you can't prepare yourself for another lockdown because if there's another one you think right that's it, that's going to sink my ship...and it's a scary scary thought...so we just try not to think about it."