Campaigners are calling for a five-point plan to safely reopen pubs
- Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
A new five-point plan has been set out by campaigners to save our pubs before it proves too late for many struggling businesses.
The #UnlockInn - Save the Great British Pub campaign, which is led by the Countryside Alliance, has been backed by Norfolk publicans and MPs alike.
It has called for pubs to be able to serve alcohol with takeaways as soon as possible and for the substantial meal requirement to be scrapped.
The other requests are a practical roadmap to help prepare businesses for resuming trading, extending the current 5pc VAT rate, and increased financial support from the government if pubs are forced to remain closed into the summer months.
Downing Street refused to be drawn on weekend reports suggesting that restrictions on meeting friends in a park could be among the first to be lifted once schools are back. Whilst there is some reason for cautious optimism, we remain in a difficult situation, with the pressures on the NHS still very significant. We have to go at the pace that the latest data and evidence allows, one source said. Our biggest priority remains schools, and we will set out our plan for reopening them, and gradually reopening our economy and society on February 22.
Hairdressers are among the non-essential businesses hoping to hear when they can reopen.
Stephen Bates
- Credit: Norfolk Constabulary
A 40-year-old repeatedly ran over a cyclist with his van before threatening to stab him, a court has heard.
Stephen Bates had been having a chat and a laugh with the victim before suggesting they go to the King’s Head pub in Loddon.
Norwich Crown Court heard Bates got in his transit van while the victim got on his electric bike to go to the pub.
Simon Sandford, prosecuting, said the victim was cycling down the road in Chedgrave and thought Bates was “going to overtake but ran over him”.
The court heard the van went over the victim’s legs in the incident on May 14, 2017.
Police chiefs in Norfolk have urgently called for officers to be given greater priority for Covid-19 vaccines after one was spat at in the face by a man.
Elly Griffiths at Jarrolds with some of her books Picture: DENISE BRADLEY
- Credit: Copyright: Archant 2018
The Night Hawks brings Elly Griffiths’ bestselling mix of whodunit and history back to her beloved Norfolk
The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths Picture: Quercus
- Credit: Quercus
Treasure hunters find a body on a north Norfolk beach; a couple die at lonely Black Dog farm; rumours of a drowned asylum seeker, a demonic dog and murder swirl across the saltmarshes.
Forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway is back in Norfolk – and unearthing stories of ancient weapons and legends running through a modern-day murder investigation.
Norfolk has haunted Elly Griffith’s novels from the beginning. She was walking with her archaeologist husband on Titchwell Marshes when she conjured the plot of her first Ruth Galloway novel from the story-sodden landscape. As he talked of how prehistoric people believed marshland was a sacred place, neither land nor sea, neither living nor dead, but