Licensing officers from MK Council will be visiting a sample of MK pubs, restaurants and other licensed premises on 4 July to check business owners are comfortable with reopening safely, and to see any issues first-hand.
MK Council has already contacted more than 2,000 food, licensed and other businesses to give advice about re-opening safely and dealing with unexpected risks, and is working alongside businesses and parish councils to understand requests to expand outdoor seating and other changes.
The team hopes their presence out and about on Saturday will give businesses confidence that they’re reopening in line with all precautionary health measures.
Updated licensing FAQs have been added to www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/restart-mk to guide businesses through what’s changing, along with two free posters for pubs, cafes and other businesses to download and use should they need.
One poster explains how many people can use indoor tables (no more than two households per table, yours and your ‘support bubble’) and outdoors (no more than six people from six different households per table, observing social distancing). Another poster is for places who can only allow one person at a time into a set of toilets due to space concerns.
Cabinet Member for Licensing Cllr Jenny Wilson-Marklew said: “I’d like to thank all the businesses in MK who have put great thought and effort into new measures to reopen safely. If you’re going out this weekend, we’re asking you to stick to social distancing instructions to help MK control COVID-19 and help businesses protect you and other customers from the risk of the virus. If a business has particular measures in place, there will be good reasons and please follow them.”
MK Council has been working to support local businesses under its ‘Restart, Restore, Renew’ banner and has been running a #restartmk campaign on social media where it profiles local businesses, to boost people’s confidence in to shopping and being out locally while staying safe.
In recent weeks it has distributed over £37m to local businesses in government grant funding, and reduced business rates to over 3,000 companies.
