We have seen first hand how the 10pm curfew introduced on Thursday 24th September has affected businesses. You can't even go to your local takeaway to collect food after 10pm, even if you are not dining in! Many late-night venues have built up and bases their entire businesses around certain opening hours and are being completely disproportionately affected.

Logically speaking, many of the public are thinking the same thing. If you ever attend a restaurant late in the evening, or go to a takeaway, McDonald's etc, after 10pm is actually the quietest and 'safest' time to go. e

Without any scientific or justifiable evidence, any public consultation, or any attempt to address the questions of the public, the government has unjustly imposed a rule of 10pm, when at 9:59pm it is perfectly fine to have everybody roaming around as normal.

There are three key issues that need to be addressed

- a 10pm curfew reduces opqening hours meaning that customers are forced to attend any establishment in a shorter window, essentially not allowing a dispersion or spread of customers

- a 10pm curfew means that at "closing time" there are mass crowds of people exiting venues causing congregations, traffic as well as the opportunity for a lack of social distancing

- a blanket 10pm curfew disproportionately affects takeaways, bars, pubs (many of which are independently owned) and there is little to no financial support available for many of these businesses causing strain on many of the business owners

We need the government to respond to the concerns we have above in the following way

- provide scientific justification and evidence as to how they believe a 10pm curfew will help reduce virus transmission

- provide clear information on what financial support is and will become available to business owners to prevent further damage to our economy due to permanent closures

Our suggestions for this to be more fair

Instead of a blanket policy for all the hospitality industry, it should be based on the type of activity they are conducting. One of the government's arguments was that alcohol consumption may cause people to lose the sense of social distancing. Perhaps there should be an alcohol amount restriction after a certain time 10pm/11pm or a reduced quota instead of having to punish establishments that do not sell or serve alcohol.

Alternatively, if they are concerned about over-crowding late at night, provide guidance of capacity restrictions rather than time restrictions. Perhaps bars and pubs may only run at 50% capacity late at night.

Please spread this petition and sign to make a change.