Fife business leader says Tier 3 move is 'bitter pill to swallow'

Fife Chamber of Commerce also criticised the Scottish Government for basing its decision on the extension of business support schemes rather than scientific data on COVID’s spread in the the Kingdom.

The comments came as businesses across Fife weighed up the impact of tougher restrictions coming into force from Friday morning.

Alan Mitchell, chief executive of the Chamber said: “Consistently we have seen business trading restricted without any evidence showing that their business activities are a major cause of transmission.

“Where is the evidence that shows that people in Fife having a drink while they eat a meal in a restaurant or going to their local bingo hall is driving dangerous rises in the level of infections?”

He added: “This is a bitter pill to swallow, even with the extension of the UK Government’s two main business support schemes.

“The concern is that it is the extension of these schemes rather than the scientific data on COVID spread in Fife that has driven the Scottish Government’s decision to place us in Tier 3. “

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He “wholeheartedly” endorsed the Scottish Chambers of Commerce view that “an over cautious approach by the Scottish Government poses a real risk to Scotland: not just to the economy but to the, long-term health and wellbeing of the population arising from the employment, public finance and non-COVID physical and mental health fallout from the measures being adopted to tackle COVID.”

Mr Mitchell accepted suppressing the pandemic meant an impact on business.

But he added: “The harms from COVID and the harms caused by the economic and social measures taken to control it must both be measured, considered and weighed up before taking far reaching decisions.

“If that analysis has been undertaken and it clearly demonstrates that firm action to tackle COVID is the lesser of the two evils we face then we should see this evidence and we can all get 100 per cent behind it. If that analysis hasn’t been undertaken, then our governments in Scotland and across the rest of the UK, are taking a big risk with our futures."

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