THE owners of a Bolton brewery and tap room have welcomed the news that pubs and restaurants in England can reopen on July 4 - but say they need more clarification on the precise details.

According to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest advice, pubs and restaurants in England can reopen both outdoors and indoors in what the government calls a “Covid-secure way” with more hand-washing, ventilation and table service indoors, rather than customers standing at a shared bar.

“We have been selling bottles via delivery throughout the lockdown and we have had a lot of support for that but obviously we have not taken as much as usual,” said Liam Convey, head brewer at Northern Monkey Brew Co on Nelson Square. “This is good news but we are still apprehensive because how many people will want to come out and what is the capacity going to be?

“We have been putting things in place so we have the hand sanitiser ready and we have had some screening made up.

“There has been some guidance put out already but I think that throughout all this the Government have not been overly clear on what we can and can’t do.”

The new guidelines allow many more businesses, as well as leisure facilities, to reopen by introducing a new “one-metre-plus” concept. This means it is now possible to be one metre away from someone outside your household, instead of two metres, so long as there is another mitigating factor in place, such as a screen or face-covering, or hand-washing facilities

The hospitality industry had warned that pubs and restaurants would go to the wall if the measure remained in place.

“It feels like we have been second guessing what we need to do,” added Liam. “Everything you need to buy has gone up in price massively - perspex has probably doubled in price and we still don’t know what hours we should open.

“It will be good to get people back through the door but I think a lot of people think it will be all be back to normal when really there are still a lot of unknowns.”