'Use the High Street or lose it': stark warning for Shropshire businesses this Christmas

Daniel Derrington of the Town House in Market Drayton said that independent businesses, especially those in the fraught hospitality sector, will be relying on customers to ensure they will still be around when the economic fog of the crisis eventually lifts.

"It's more important than ever. Over lockdown we all got used to the one-click Amazon system, it's all too easy.

"I'm always quite careful because Amazon do use a lot of independent suppliers, but that doesn't keep the High Street alive.

"People need to eat out, not just to eat out but to use the greengrocer, go out and spend their money in the town.

"[Otherwise] we're going to come out of lockdown and there's going to be nothing left in the High Street – just office space and charity shops."

Petition

Mr Derrington has joined more than 50,000 others in signing a petition asking the Government to install a ministerial position specifically for the hospitality sector.

He had been hoping the Town House could reopen in a Covid-safe way and restore some winter trade after the second English lockdown ended earlier this month, before the reveal that Shropshire would return to the Tier 2 restrictions that ban indoor meetings between two households.

It has effectively kept his business in lockdown conditions, he said, with many of his bookings suddenly made illegal. He is continuing to rely on a takeaway service that has proved popular, but which has not made up for the hit to his income.

"We just feel like hospitality generally is being unfairly targeted.

"For us it is damage limitation – by keeping our doors shut we won't be losing as much money.

"People in hospitality, I believe we have quite thick skin... it takes a lot for people in hospitality to say 'we're not happy with this'.

"We need someone in Parliament to represent us."

To learn more about the petition, visit seatatthetable.org.uk.