BUSINESSES in Bolton have reacted with joy to the easing of lockdown announcements which mean they will be able to trade again.

Retreat Restaurants, which has three restaurants across Bolton, and Devine Hair and Beauty in Horwich will be able to operate again as lockdown restrictions are eased.

Outdoor hospitality is allowed to reopen from April 12, if the government’s targets are met, with May 17 given as the earliest date possible for indoor hospitality.

Richard Hibbert, a director at Retreat Restaurants, said its team had received over 3,500 table requests last night for their outdoor dining areas at their sites in Adlington and Chorley New Road, and they had been working tirelessly since then to get all those people a booking slot.

He said: “We were getting 17 table requests a minute at one point on Monday night, we could hardly keep up.”

Last June Retreat started building an outdoor dining area at its Chorley New Road restaurant in anticipation of this.

He said: “We always knew that restrictions would be eased for outdoor eating first, it made sense, and the announcement showed this.

“We didn’t think we would open until at least May so outdoor in early April was a surprise.

“Now we are just hopeful of having good weather again this year.

“Lockdown has been very frustrating for us and many other businesses in Bolton especially. We only traded for about three months last year.

“We really don’t want a repetition of that stop-start trading, but we had a conference meeting with Mark Logan MP and a government minister on Monday who assured us that wouldn’t happen again.”

Dina Varsani, who runs Devine Hair and Beauty in Church Road, Horwich, said it was surprising and good news that she could open again on April 12, but she was still cautious after previous lockdown announcements.

She said: “I didn’t think we would be allowed to open until May so it was a surprise when they said early April.

“It’s definitely good news and shows light at the end of the tunnel and I’ve had lots of messages," she added.