Littlehampton café owner, pub landlady and Rustington barber urge customers to support local businesses

On Tuesday, June 23, Boris Johnson told MPs that restaurants, bars and hairdressers were also set to reopen in England from July 4.

This comes after the Covid-19 alert level was downgraded from four to three, reflecting a falling trend of coronavirus-related deaths.

Non-essential retailers such as clothes shops were allowed to open from June 15, breathing life back into the town centre.

Other venues that can also reopen on July 4 are cinemas and museums. A date for nightclubs and gyms has yet to be announced by the Government.

Among those celebrating the news was Gary Hughesdon, owner of Café 72 in Littlehampton High Street and Bar 72 next door in Clifton Road.

He said: “We are very excited, and we look forward to seeing all our regular customers come back again.

“It will be nice to get back to some kind of normality.”

New social distancing measures will have to be put in place, such as only opening for customers with table service and not laying the table with cutlery and condiments before they arrive.

Gary said businesses were going above and beyond to make sure customers were safe.

He said: “A prime example is that we bought a litre of hand sanitiser from the wholesalers and it cost £10.

“Cafés, restaurants and pubs are really, massively footing the bill on this,” he said.

He urged people to support local businesses: “People are quick to criticise that there is nothing in the High Street, but then once Costa Coffee opens they flock to it.”

Ellie Boiling, who runs The Dolphin pub in Littlehampton High Street, was looking forward to seeing her regulars again.

The landlady had invested in hand sanitiser, plastic cups, paper towels for the bathrooms and visors.

But Ellie had concerns about how the rules would work in practice – particularly given that she was in the group of vulnerable people that was meant to be shielding until August.

She said: “It isn’t all down to us; the customers have to take responsibility for their own hygiene and safety. I’m supplying this stuff – but it would be good if they could bring their own hand sanitiser as well.”

Andy Cooper is chairman of the Rustington Chamber of Commerce and owner of Clipper Street Barbers in The Street, Rustington. He said: “We’ve got a lot of people with very long hair – including myself – so I’m very happy to get back open.”

He added that a lot of work was going on behind the scenes to get the shop ready, but that the loyalty of customers made it worth it. He said: “We have spent two days solid booking appointments. It’s crazy.”

They had also been speaking to customers about the new rules, such as no walk-in appointments and making sure all clients wear masks – including children.

As chairman of the chamber, he said the move out of lockdown was ‘fantastic news’ for business. “Rustington is probably one of the safest shopping environments people can come to,” he said.

Andy Sparsis runs the Fish Factory in East Street, Littlehampton.

He said: “ The hospitality industry works closely with the general public , the hardest part of the closure of our industry was being isolated from all our customers.

“We are excited about meeting them again and making fantastic dinning and social experiences for our customers.

“We have a long hard road ahead and our industry will fight hard to deliver the type of eating and drinking our customers have been missing for so many months.”