“We don’t have to immediately resort to Amazon” - Calderdale shoppers urged to support local firms during lockdown

Businesses across Calderdale were plunged back into uncertainty and worry today as the second national lockdown meant mass closures.

For the second time this year, businesses have been forced to temporarily close, this time for a month.

But plans are in place for click and collect services so that consumers can still shop with local retailers and help support them.

Tracy Harvey, managing director of Harvey’s of Halifax, is hoping firms in the borough will be better prepared to deal with the lockdown this time around.

She said: “Obviously it’s a bit of a shock that we’ve got to close down again but I think this time the positive thing about it is that we’re ready.

“We know what to expect, we know how to deal with it better than the first time, plus it’s more flexible in terms of what we can do and how we can continue to trade in a different way.

“Some of the details aren’t available yet but there’s a lot of work going on about click and collect services around the town.

“The Piece Hall is looking at a click and collect service for their tenants.

“Halifax BID are looking at how a click and collect can be offered for all Halifax businesses at a central point.

“What worked really well for us during the first lockdown was personal deliveries, so they rang us, we talked them through things on video, then we get in the car and deliver it to them.

“It was such a nice experience, people were very thankful they could access the products they wanted but they were supporting a local business as well.

“So we know we can do that and expand on it. We’re much more resilient this time round, we know what to expect and we just need people to think slightly differently.

“We’d like people to focus on how they can support local through lockdown. We don’t have to immediately resort to Amazon.

“Through the first lockdown, people discovered businesses that they didn’t know about before.

“Hopefully they remember them and go back to them.

“There’s a more combined effort in the town centre this time in terms of people going to their favourite retailers’ websites and then they can click and collect to a central point.

“There will be something like that available, which I think is really positive.”

Hugh Kirby, owner of The Cross Keys pub in Siddal, thought it was unfair that, under Tier Three restrictions, which Calderdale was poised to fall under before the lockdown was announced, non-food pubs like his had to close while pubs that served food could remain open.

He said: “I feel a little bit happier now that there’s going to be an even playing field, which is only fair.

“The only awkward thing for us was we’d geared up to sell out of our fresh real ale on Sunday so we had to scrounge what we could from our brewers to stay open until Thursday.

“But staying open those extra three days means I’ll be able to pay my staff a full wage for next week and perhaps the week after.”

But Mr Kirby said it was right that the lockdown was introduced.

“I think it’s 100 per cent the right thing to do, personally I think it should have been done earlier,” he said.

“What made a lot of us in the licensed trade jump up and down was when London went into Tier Two, all of a sudden there was help available despite the fact a lot of people had to suffer going into Tier Two before London.

“But let’s just move on, let’s get the thing out of our lives and we can get back to some semblance of normality.

“What concerns me is that we will be coming out of it on December 2, but we could be going back into Tier Three, in which case we still can’t open.

“So we’d be back to square one where food outlets are still quids in and wet led pubs are left out in the cold, again.

“But I hope it doesn’t happen like that.”

Waterside Beauty in Elland celebrates its third anniversary on December 2.

The business originally opened in December 2017 and is run by Sarah Metcalfe and her business partner, Kelly Cox, who have over 25 years combined experience in the industry.

“In February we were devastated to see the flooding that occurred as it absolutely wiped us out,” said Sarah.

“Pretty much everything inside the salon was destroyed and the water rose up to four feet inside.

“We called on friends and family to help with the clean up operation, which took just over a week.

“We’d also recently recruited a new member of staff and the business was very successful.

“We were making good progress in starting the restoration work until Covid intervened and we had to wait until July before things could recommence.

“We’ve been lucky enough to use some temporary space so we could continue to trade, but we also had to furlough our employee and, as of today, she’s Luckily back to full time hours.

“Our clients have supported us a lot this year.

“We feel the beauty industry has been given a bad time throughout all this.

“When we shut down before we had such a fight to re-open again, especially beauty, because hair businesses opened a week before us.

“We were in the same group as them throughout and when it came to it they opened before us, and when we did re-open, we thought we could do everything we offer, but we weren’t allowed to do face things.

“We’ve just moved back into our salon three weeks ago and they’re closing us again, after we’ve got all the PPE, it’s controlled, clients are coming in one-by-one, sitting in their cars outside waiting.

“We are there to support our clients because, in these times, it is tough so coming to a beauty salon is a bit of therapy for them.

“They really look forward to coming to us, some of them live on their own so it’s their therapy, and ours too because we love seeing our clients.

“It’s somewhere where they can come and switch off from the outside world so mentally, it really helps them.

“We feel beauty salons are the solution to Covid-19, not the problem in regards to our clients coming to see us for therapy treatment and relaxation, and also a good chat.

“Sometimes we are the only person the client may see that week, and often get told we are the highlight of their week coming to see us. This massively increases clients’ mental health and well being.”

Sarah added: “We understand it’s for the greater good.”Because we’ve gone through so much we’ve just got to keep positive and keep smiling.

“We’re going to stay productive by doing training, getting ready for Christmas for when we re-open.

“We are allowed to do non-essential retail through non-contact deliveries and click and collect of Christmas stock and gift vouchers, obviously socially distanced.”

Sarah’s business partner Kelly Cox said: “We know it’s for a valid reason but at the same time, it’s frustrating because we have all the safety measures in place, so we’re really sad we’re having to close after fighting so much to re-open.

“When we were doing our training at beauty college, the first thing we learned was about hygiene and sanitisation so we’re a hygienic business anyway, as well as following all the ever-changing guidelines.

“There’s no evidence that beauty salons are spreading the virus, because how can we when we’re wearing our PPE, clients are wearing masks and we’re sanitising everything?

“Because we have to book out more time for each client, we’re losing space in our diary.

“We don’t really agree with the closures but there’s nothing we can do about it and we’re hoping the Government will re-open us in December.”

Chicoccino Play Gym and Party Venue, in Greetland, only re-opened in September.

Sara Fairhurst, who runs the business with her husband Jason, said: “We were already having to shut going into Tier Three, the only thing we’re not aware of is what might happen when it goes back into the tiers when we come out of it.

“If we go back into Tier Three, we wouldn’t even open in December, which is one of our busiest times of the year.

“All winter is really, we already lost out at the beginning of the year and we’ll probably lose out on quite a bit over the winter as well.

“We should be able to get through it, it just depends how quickly they get stuff sorted out, and with the grants and what help there is.

“But the grants are not enough to cover everything.”