Bristol’s bar and restaurant owners have complained to the city council, claiming the way it has managed lifeline grants from the Government to cover the winter Omicron covid wave has been ‘a shambles’.
BARBI, the city’s independent bar and restaurant association, said scores of businesses in Bristol have missed out on getting thousands of pounds of Government grants, because council chiefs didn’t inform them about the grants, and closed the application process more than a month early compared to most other locations around the country.
Bristol City Council has yet to formally respond to Bristol Live’s inquiries about the debacle, but a council officer did say the application window was closed on February 14 to give officers enough time to process the applications. Almost all other local authorities in major towns and cities still have their grant schemes open.
