Call for Edinburgh's Level Three to be relaxed so hospitality can open longer

Edinburgh’s council leaders are pressing the Scottish Government to allow bars and restaurants to extend their opening hours despite the decision that the Capital should remain under tough Level Three restrictions.

Level Two rules allow bars and restaurants to open until 8pm and serve alcohol with a meal

The announcement by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday afternoon came as a surprise since all the data on Covid infection rates suggest Edinburgh should be in Level Two.

Hospitality businesses have warned the current rules, which force them to close at 6pm and ban them from serving alcohol, are a hammer blow to their viability and threaten many jobs.

Council leader Adam McVey is said to have contacted the government after the announcement on Tuesday afternoon to argue for some leeway in the run-up to Christmas.

Depute leader Cammy Day said: “Adam was straight back on the phone to them to express his frustration and say if we’re staying in Level Three we should at least be getting a bit more flexibility. if we have to remain in Level Three, can we get a bit of leniency for the bars and restaurants to open a bit longer, even without alcohol?”

One source said the two leaders were “furious” at the decision after being led to believe Edinburgh would be moved down to Level Two, which would have allowed bars and restaurants to open till 8pm and serve alcohol with meals.

The source said: “There was a call on Friday between public health officials and council chief executives across Scotland and no-one disagreed with the case for Edinburgh being in Level Two, there was no challenge to it.

"Then on Sunday there was a call with John Swinney and at no point was Level Two disputed then either. If there was any disagreement there are meant to be follow-up calls, but there weren’t so everyone assumed it was going to be Level Two because no-one said anything different.”

Following the announcement, Cllr McVey issued a statement saying: “We are continuing to engage with the Scottish Government and I am making the case for changes to the makeup of tier 3 in areas like opening hours to try and find a way of helping businesses while keeping people safe.”

And he tweeted: “I met DFM @JohnSwinney who confirmed Edin’s robust representations were discussed extensively at Cabinet. Gov will send detailed reasons for their decision to keep Edin in level 3. Discussions continuing on further business support, taking account of Edinburgh-specific issues.”

A motion is expected to be tabled at tomorrow’s full council meeting by the SNP-Labour administration, calling on the government to review the Level Three decision.

Tory group leader Iain Whyte said the public needed to hear a full explanation of why Edinburgh was not being moved to Level Two.

He said: “If the council leadership is making the case, it's not making the case very well by the look of it.

“All of the stats now show that Edinburgh should be in Level Two or even below that and if the level system is to mean anything than Edinburgh should have moved this time.

“It's not about the wholesale opening up of anything, it's about allowing a little bit more trading to make businesses in our hospitality sector viable and give people a few more options to socialise.”

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