THE owner of a city bar cafe says he fears the stricter restrictions on their opening hours could lead to even more “draconian measures” being introduced.

The government announced English pubs, bars and restaurants must close nightly at 10pm from tomorrow night.

Craig Finn, owner of Belgian beer cafe Tripel B in Copenhagen Street, said it would particularly affect their busy trade on Friday and Saturday nights, adding it was “difficult to fathom” why they were losing an hour, when other things were not being targeted as well.

“I guess I can see the logic, but I’m not sure I agree,” Mr Finn said.

“I assume the thinking is the later the night goes on the more inebriated people get, lower their barriers, and it becomes harder to social distance.

“You would see that at a very late time (outside a nightclub).

“But there is no problem here with that, we stick to the Covid rules.

“We saw the rule of six coming in, now this, I wondered if it was the first in a series of more draconian measures, let’s hope it doesn’t go that way but it looks a possibility.

“If there was a second lockdown we wouldn’t be able to survive without government support.”

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Meanwhile in his statement to the Commons yesterday, ahead of a television broadcast last night, the Prime Minister also confirmed the government was reversing the back to the office drive.

“We are asking office workers who can work from home to do so,” he told MPs.

Nick Grey, owner of Gtech, said their flexible approach had previously had 10 per cent of the workforce coming in to the office.

Following the announcement Mr Grey said: “The majority of people are still working from home and if more prefer to do so that it will be supported by Gtech.”

He added new positions in their design and marketing department were currently being advertised, and most of those were ‘work from home’ jobs.

NPower, another of the city’s biggest employers, told us last month a number of its employees were already working from home, and the arrangements for the small team in the office were dependant on further government announcements.