Central Bedfordshire Council news and press releases

Play your part by supporting our local businesses during lockdown

Friday, 6 November 2020

The next four weeks will see many of the local shops and services we love having to stop trading. But not all Central Bedfordshire businesses are shutting down during lockdown.

With the help of technology to develop click and collect shopping and by switching from in house to takeaway services, many Central Bedfordshire businesses are doing all they can to keep their customers satisfied.

Here are three good examples:

The Loft in Northbridge Street, Shefford is one such example, where manager Hannah is already looking forward to the challenge. She said:

We will certainly be giving our takeaway service a go and see what happens. We are lucky in that we have a really good local client base who are keen to support us. All our menus are on our Facebook page, but my recommendation is for our special of a lovely home made sandwich, slice of cake and a cold drink.

The Kings Reach Pub in Pottons Road, Biggleswade, is planning a brand new takeaway service. Its assistant manager, Iona, said:

We are just starting with Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays as they are the busiest days, so we will be offering a whole host of traditional food from fish and chips to burgers. All our menus will be on our website. So far, we have had loads of enquiries from our regulars and hopefully that will be a good starting point.

Another enterprising pub is the White Swan on Dunstable’s High Street. Says its manager, Corinne:

We did a takeaway and delivery service during the last lockdown, which worked pretty well, so we are just going to build on that. We are lucky in that we are really active on Facebook and Instagram, where we have about 3,000 followers, so hopefully a few of them will look up our menus. I’m delighted to say we are definitely doing a Sunday roast as a takeaway which we know will be popular and we are also going to do a ‘Cheer You Up’ package so watch this space!

Councillor Kevin Collins, our Executive Member for Planning and Regeneration, said everyone can help support our local economy:

Whilst our access to non-essential businesses is going to be restricted for the next month, there are ways we can help our local independent companies through the pandemic. We may not be able to head out to pubs and restaurants this weekend, but we can see if they are offering takeaways. We could also get ahead with the Christmas shopping by checking out whether local gift shops are offering an online service.

These local companies are at the heart of our local towns and villages and to keep it that way, we just need to use them rather than lose them.