Face masks; time for pub and restaurant staff to wear coverings – Yorkshire Post Letters

LIKE many, we have just started to flex our wings a little and enjoy a few meals out. One thing I am surprised and disappointed about, however, has been the tendency of the serving staff not to be wearing masks and the proximity they get when serving the table.

Actually, I’m not usually over-sensitive about social distancing, but it occurs to me that in a situation like this, the customer is a bit of a ‘sitting duck’.

What I mean is that because we on a lower level at the table, and the staff need to lean over you, and often across you, then closeness can’t be avoided. The waiter or waitress will speak, laugh, even cough from a position just above your shoulder, which surely can’t be deemed to be safe, or good practice now.

I’m sure that many pubs and restaurants have sorted this out, but in my recent experience, meals in garden centres and at gardens have been slack in this regard. Surely it only requires a bit of common sense?

From: Don Oliver, Fairhaven Green, Idle, Bradford.

SINCE the compulsory wearing of face coverings on public transport, and now in shops, I have advocated that the ruling wasn’t fit for purpose. It wasn’t workable or enforceable. No one seemed or wanted to accept that that was indeed the case.

The fact that we were told that we must wear a facing covering was needed and, in fact, should have been brought in from the start of lockdown. It was needed but unfortunately, Boris Johnson then shot himself in the foot. He provided those people who didn’t want to wear a mask with a get-out clause. That clause was to exempt, possibly, half the population.

The exemption was a way of providing for those who had a difficulty with breathing while wearing a mask. However, I don’t believe this clause was given any thought. The exemption should have only been for those people with respiratory problems rather than a carte blanche approach.

Now is the time to get some logic into the handling of Covid-19 and the only way to do that is for those who can put forward our concerns is to do exactly that. Speak out.

From: Dave Ellis, Hedon.

DRIVING through Lytham and St Annes town centres last Sunday, we were horrified to see the high number of visitors who weren’t wearing face masks.

It was a case of spotting someone who was wearing a face mask! Shame on you, visitors to Lytham and St Annes!

The constant messaging put out by Government clearly has not got through to the residents and visitors of these two Lancashire seaside resorts. Police and the local authorities are relying on people to use ‘common sense’ and voluntarily wear face masks, which is happening in other towns.

There is no wonder that there are local lockdowns 20 miles inland in Blackburn and Darwin.

My conclusion, from my visit to Lytham, is that Lancashire and other areas will be in lockdown sooner rather than later.

From: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

THE problems faced by Premier League clubs doesn’t really worry me. For they earn millions from sponsorship deals and TV rights, and can always slash the wages of their grossly over-paid players if need be.

It is the sides in what is now the EFL that I’m worried about, who rely so much more on the gate money that no longer exists thanks to the coronavirus regulations. But why can’t more teams be allowed to admit socially-distanced crowds? I fear that the over-stringent rules will lead to well-established clubs going to the wall, and that’s sad.

From: Peter Rickaby, Selby.

BY the time you have leapt through numerous hoops, jumped many hurdles in obtaining an appointment at a doctors’ surgery, you feel more like an Olympic athlete than someone in need of attention.

Experience suggests surgeries are organised solely to suit the convenience of those that work there, not for the health and wellbeing of a patient (The Yorkshire Post, September 15).

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James Mitchinson