DARLINGTON businesses yestreday reacted with a mixture of delight, caution and scepticism to the Government's roadmap announcement.

Darlington Borough Council welcomed the new roadmap, but urged caution to those eager to reopen.

Councillor Kevin Nicholson, cabinet member for health and housing, said: “We welcome the government’s plan to ease and eventually end lockdown restrictions in England.

“Many of us in Darlington will be keen to see our businesses, such as our leisure facilities and non-essential shops, open as soon as it is safe to do so.

“However, the roadmap that has been set out will only work if we all play our part in Darlington to ensure cases of Covid-19 continue to fall.

“This includes getting the vaccination when it is offered, taking regular asymptomatic tests at our community testing centres and following national guidelines, in addition to self-isolating after a positive test result."

Some businesses said they felt that earlier than expected roadmap dates are being used by the Government to “appease” businesses.

Ian Ferguson, owner of Crooners Champagne Bar, said: “I think it’s pretty much what I expected – I was expecting around about May anyway.

“For me, personally, unless we have a fantastic heatwave, allowing outdoor seating in April, is just to appease a few people.

“You’re not going to make any money with people sat outside, especially if it’s cold miserable and damp – looking at the weather now, I think this is going to be with us for a while and it will cost you to open up.

“I would rather be delayed, and we be open fully without any restrictions or minimum restrictions rather than having to open for a couple of weeks and close again “It costs an arm and a leg to open up any business when it’s been dormant for that amount of time, so I think it’s for the best.

“I think it will be great to see people come back in. I don’t think it will be a mad stampede, which is what a lot of people are expecting like after the first lockdown – I think it will be a gradual process.”

For gyms, the roadmap means easing people back and ensuring they feel safe when they do.

Ken Campling, Group CFO at The Bannatyne Group, said: “I’m very happy that there is a roadmap now, the uncertainty is the worst possible scenario for businesses.

“We perfectly understand that it’s driven by data and science, but as a business that has been closed for a substantial period of time, the level of uncertainty only increases with every day.

“We’d looked at a couple of scenarios – we’d looked at being closed for three months or up to six months in this lockdown and we’ve funded the business appropriately to cover the worst case scenario.

"So being open only 12 days later than our best case scenario is very welcome to us as a business.’