PUB landlords around Swindon are hoping for a busy summer after struggling through a year of lockdowns that destroyed their trade.

The Tuppenny owner Jamie Stapleton revealed that his worst night, in December, saw sales that were 99.5 per cent down on the previous year, but an online shop set up in the first two days of the March lockdown proved to be a lifeline.

He added: “People started talking about Covid in January and the PM advised people not to go to pubs, so we had a terrible February and an awful March, trade nosedived.

“Older customers we saw during the daytime started isolating and staff at big hubs like Nationwide and Intel worked from home so we didn’t get their lunchtime or after-work visits.

“When we could reopen, our maximum capacity went from 125 to 36, then before Christmas the rule of six went down to the rule of two.

“I understand why but it was tough, I’ve never known a December like it, it was enormously challenging and quite frightening watching our business’ finances haemorrhage.

“The substantial meal rule was a car crash because it made trading more difficult and very costly. What little revenue we had was eaten up by the increased staff we had to employ to monitor everything.”

Cautious optimism for his pub mixed with concern for others in the area is colouring Jamie’s outlook for the next few months as lockdown is expected to ease.

Mr Stapleton added: “We were very lucky and are resilient to the last but I don’t feel confident that all my friends in the industry will be and I fear for what the future will be like for them.

“There is a lot of criteria that needs to be met for May 17 and June 21, so I’m not counting my chickens yet. One thing I’ve learned in the last year is not to take anything as read, things can change so quickly.

“But I’m looking forward to summer because it could be like Christmas in August, with people celebrating events they missed during lockdown every weekend and feeling confident enough to go out because of the amazing vaccine rollout.”

The Southbrook Inn landlord Alun Rossiter agreed. He plans to reopen his beer garden on April 17, weather permitting, before a full reopening in May.

Mr Rossiter added: “If people are sensible and don’t act like the pandemic is suddenly over in June, I’d like to think we can bounce back, we just have to work extra hard to get back into it.

“People have gotten into the habit of drinking at home but miss the pub and are keen to return because we’ve taken it for granted.

“I’ve started getting emails asking about functions and parties, so clearly people are now happy to plan ahead for the summer.

“We’ve had a tough time and had a massive loss in sales of drinks, food and venue bookings. I got frustrated when the rules were not clear or a bit of a mish-mash, and think we waited too long to lock down.

“But I relied on my HGV licence to go driving since day one, the break has regenerated and reinvigorated us, and the vaccine rollout was great.”