Covid: Cardiff bar closes over restrictions and says customers are heading to England instead
A popular Cardiff nightclub has announced its temporary closure citing Covid restrictions in Wales and said customers are heading to England instead.
Pulse announced its closure on social media earlier this week which will last until January 12, and a spokesperson for the club has since explained reasons for the decision further.Over the festive period, licensed premises could only operate a table service system while also keeping to two-metre social distancing rules - which is still in place now. Face masks also have to be worn and contact tracing details must be collected.
Pictures shared by Pulse show the difficulties in operating such a system, and staff at the nightclub said it meant there was “nowhere near enough demand”.
Current rules in England do not go as far, and Pulse said it means customers are travelling there or staying at home instead.
It comes as another nightclub boss warned of bankruptcies and job losses and says Welsh Government support won't even last a week.
Current rules for England include Covid passes for entry into nightclubs or large events, while face masks must be worn in most public indoor spaces.
A spokesperson for Pulse explained the effect of the differing rules.
“Quite frankly, the moment the most recent Welsh Government restrictions came into place our trade collapsed,” they said.
“We are aware of many customers travelling across the border to nightclubs in England and this dramatically affected the amount of table service bookings we had over the festive period.”
They said the Christmas and New Year period had been “disappointing”.“The decision to close was incredibly difficult to make but realistically there is currently nowhere near enough demand to justify opening,” they added.
“We look forward to reopening on Wednesday January 12 when we hope the situation will have improved.”Pulse isn’t the first establishment to announce temporary closure in recent days. A number of restaurants across the region have done the same.
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