A RESTAURANT owner has spoken out at his frustration after being shut down for breaching local lockdown guidelines.

Roberto's Bar and Bistro, in Richmond Terrace, Blackburn, is the third known location to be closed by authorities in East Lancashire after the Duke of Wellington pub in Great Harwood and Waheed's in Blackburn.

John Rowe, of Roberto’s said: “The government is urging people to go out and eat and here we have the council coming and shutting us down. It makes no sense. I am so disheartened I don’t feel like reopening.

“We have 15 staff and thousands of pounds worth of stock which we can’t use. We actually employed four extra people who had been laid off due to the pandemic.”

Council bosses say the closure will last for a month but will be reviewed every seven days. If the establishment is considered to be now complying with rules it will be allowed to reopen under strict monitoring.

They say the places which were ordered to close had been the subject of many complaints had numerous chances to improve their safety measures.

Mr Rowe said they were visited by council officers on Sunday and told a group of guests were sat too close together.

He said: “We had a group who were all from the same family bubble together on a table as part of a baby shower.

"They had five on and five on the other side. They were suitably social distanced too. They even asked the guests who clearly said they were part of one ‘bubble’.

“They then made me take the table outside which we did.

“Then a day later we had some council public protection officers in and they shut us down. They did not ask for the track and trace system nor looked at the social distancing measures we have in place.

“We got told that we had 30 minutes to clear the restaurant.

“The council have been of no assistance and contrary to what they are saying we have not had many warnings. We feel we are being made an example of.”

Mr Rowe was adamant that he had made all the necessary efforts to keep to government guidelines. He shared images from Sunday of how the tables had been set up outside.

He said: “If you visit Roberto’s you will see the majority of our guests have been sat outside. The tables are all placed apart, there are hand sanitisers and we have a track and trace system in place. All our efforts have made no difference.

“The strange thing was they came on Sunday to put two-metre markings on Richmond Terrace. We never have any queues. And then they closed us on Monday.”