A RETIRED Dunfermline licensing expert says restaurants have been served a "raw deal" with coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Tom Johnston, a licensing lawyer, said he felt safer in restaurants than in supermarkets when allowed to dine out last year and believes eateries are not being treated fairly.

Also understanding the plight of pubs and bars, he is hoping that places will be able to re-open at the end of April as planned.

"I am very very sorry for the pubs – until recently I was secretary of the Fife Licensed Trade Association – but it is terribly unfair that restaurants are being treated exactly the same as pubs.

"It is complete and utter nonsense that restaurants – somewhere like the Wee Restaurant in North Queensferry – can open but somehow they cannot sell you a glass of wine with your meal.

"Places are having to cut numbers to comply with spacing and so on and so forth and it is not as if people are going to table hop and be thrown out at ten to two.

"Restaurants have had a raw deal. Before the lockdown, the last meal we had was at Tom's Kitchen in Leith. I felt a lot safer there than I did going to the supermarket doing the messages. It remains to be seen what plans there are going to be.

"They are saying we think you are going to open on the 27th but we won't tell you until the 20th. You have got to get staff sorted and supplies. Is is not just going out to the shops.

"I don't think any government has any remote understanding of the practicalities of how to run a business."