Great to see Peterborough’s restaurants packed

Earlier this week, I tried book a table for dinner. I rang half a dozen city restaurants. Unless we wanted to eat after 9pm that night, they were all fully booked, writes Peterborough MP Paul Bristow.

I didn’t know whether to be pleased or annoyed. “It’s all thanks to the Chancellor,” one of the restaurant owners gleefully told me, as he rejected my request.

I may need to mention this flaw to Rishi. It meant fish fingers, chips and beans at home for the Bristows...

In all seriousness, it’s fantastic that Peterborough’s restaurants are packed because of the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme. Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, customers get 50 per cent off their meal, up to a maximum of £10 per person.

As we adjust from lockdown, the Chancellor’s idea was to give people a reason to eat out again. The scheme is running for the whole of August to get our restaurants, pubs and cafes back on their feet.

It’s working. The latest Treasury figures show that people got more than 35 million ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ discounts in its first two weeks. That’s the equivalent of almost half the country dining out.

Perhaps it was the taste of my fish fingers, but it felt like more than half of Peterborough. Thankfully, I did manage to squeeze into the Bombay Brassiere for a meal last week. Just about.

In our city centre, local people from every community are back – young and old, families and friends. All happy to enjoy what we had almost forgotten. All respecting the rules on track-and-trace, hand sanitizers and social distancing, at least from what I could see.

The city council thinks footfall has risen to 80 per cent of pre-lockdown levels. A bustling Peterborough even featured on the main evening news. It was fabulous to watch.

I was worried that many outlets might close. This is still a concern, but less so if we keep doing our bit, through and beyond the scheme.

After Pizza Express said it would close over 70 branches, I pleaded with them to stay open in the home city of the chain’s founder, Peter Boizot. I’m so pleased that their Cathedral Square restaurant will survive the cull – but we have to use it or lose it!

We cannot take the city centre for granted. It’s not just about Peterborough’s jobs and economy. Some of the impacts of lockdown are less understood than others, including what it meant for our mental health. We are social animals.

Loneliness is an issue that I want to explore further in Parliament. Some people still don’t have anyone to dine out with, despite lockdown ending. This isolation is desperately sad and does not come easy.

I’m aware that other people have been hit in the pocket and perhaps can’t afford to eat out, whatever the Government discount. But for those who can, ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ is running in every price bracket, including McDonald’s.

Labour’s local snobs complained about me holding a surgery in McDonalds before lockdown. Last month, they claimed I was out-of-touch for asking people to shop and eat locally. These attitudes are absurd. Our city needed a boost and our restaurants needed the bookings. The Chancellor agreed and so, it appears, do you. A lesson learnt – I’ll get my next 
reservation in early