Newport open for business again
Newport is open for business again as 'non-essential' retail is allowed to resume and townspeople can finally have their lockdown hair attended to.
The Government's 'road map' out of lockdown gave the green light for 'non-essential' retailers to open their doors and begin trading again from Monday, April 12.
Indoor hospitality venues will still be waiting until May 17 to be able to serve again.
Tracey Gillespie, manager of the Honeycomb hair salon in Newport, has delighted in seeing all her regulars and attending to their lockdown barnets.
"It's quite a nice feeling, it's nice to see everybody back in. It's been a nice little social.
"We're just so grateful, everyone has been so understanding and it's just been a pleasure. I'm on cloud nine."
Appointments are stretched out to allow for easier social distancing and to avoid any risk of mixing.
As many other hair salons have done, they will extend opening hours for the next few weeks to allow for more appointments.
"It's the only way to get through the workload. It's going to be 9pm to 8pm... it's probably going to be 9pm to 9pm on some of the days.
"I'm just happy we're back open and hopefully we're be open for longer this time with no more lockdowns.
"Fingers crossed, everything crossed!"
Indoor hospitality
Matt Lorenz, who opened the Novella craft beer and cocktail bar with his partner Marie Ryley last October, has faced successive lockdowns since then and hopes that this one is the last.
The pair will not be able to open their doors again until May 17, when indoor hospitality venues reopen.
Mr Lorenz said: "The last lockdown sadly just felt like normal to us now. We've been lucky enough to have remained busy with cocktail deliveries but we are more than ready to reopen again.
"We've had a mini-refurb, installed 15 beer taps and desperate to get back to serving our favourite craft beers and cocktails. Our hopes are to beat our current record of being open for four consecutive weeks!
"At this point we're no longer placing bets on how things will go with everything opening up again. We are hopeful but we're just going to ride the wave out until things return to normality again.
"It's very exciting and satisfying to see places reopening again, we're relieved for every other business that has survived as this has been an incredibly testing year for everyone. We're excited for what comes next."
