A pub landlord wants to launch a legal bid to allow pubs and restaurants to reopen in Wales at the same time as shops.
Carl Willett is speaking to the legal team challenging the 海角视频 Government over keeping hospitality closed indoors in England about a similar judicial review bid in Wales.
Greater Manchester's night-time economy advisor Sacha Lord has confirmed he is mounting a legal challenge to the High Court for a judicial review to bring forward the reopening of the hospitality sector in England.
He argues the sector should open indoors alongside the reopening of non-essential retail on April 12 saying evidence has not been provided to show they pose any more risk than retail.
Mr Lord says that ventilated pubs and restaurants are safer and more socially distanced than retail stores but have to wait until May 17 to open indoors in England, although can open outdoors on April 12.
In Wales there is currently no date for outdoor or indoor hospitality to open while non-essential retail will open on April 12.
Now Mr Willett, who runs the Castle Inn in Monmouth and Paddock Inn and Bakery in Penally, Tenby, with partner Paul Cinderey, has set up a to fund a judicial review in Wales.
He is working with the legal team at JMW Solicitors who are leading on the cases in England. A similar action has already ruled the 海角视频 Government's substantial meal rule was “discriminatory towards certain sections of society" and has been dropped.
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Mr Willett has so far raised £285 towards the £3,500 initial costs.
JMW have been asked to comment.
Mr Willett said: "Our argument is that we should be able to open at the same time as retail as the evidence is not there to show there is any greater risk of infections in hospitality as in a shop. A judicial review would require the government to show that evidence to justify the decisions they are making.
"In Wales we have hairdressers opening this week, a close contact service, but gyms and hospitality don't even have a reopening date, we don't have a clue when we can reopen. How can it be safe to go for a haircut but you can’t sit in a beer garden socially distanced with a friend?
"The current data puts Wales at level one but we are still in alert level 4, Welsh Government is not keeping to its own guidance.
"The continuing closure is having a catastrophic impact on the economy and particularly this sector, the Welsh Government has to justify its decisions."
Welsh Government has previously said the consumption of alcohol has been identified by health officials and policy makers internationally as increasing the risk of transmission, as social distancing can break down as people have an altered perception of risk.
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Scientific group SAGE said in the autumn that there are four types of evidence currently available to understand where transmission is occurring and that while each has limitations they are consistent
A recent report by Public Health Wales said it found additional risk of infection in pub setting but not in restaurants and gyms.
But Kate Nicholls, the CEO of 海角视频Hospitality, said: "All the data points to hospitality being relatively safe and linked to only a tiny number of cases.
"Vaccinations and the fall in infection rates has de-risked our reopening even further.
"Over the past year, the Government has repeatedly miscalculated the risks posed by hospitality.”
The 海角视频 Government is being urged to publish the data that underpins its decisions on the restrictions imposed on the hospitality sector, according to a new report published by the House of Commons’ Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
Mr Willett said: "A judicial review here would require the Welsh Government to justify the decisions it is making - that is all we want."
Welsh Government pointed Business Live to comments made on Friday by First Minister Mark Drakeford.
He said: "Unfortunately, there are very few guarantees in this pandemic. We know from our own experience – and experience in Europe – just how quickly events can take a turn for the worse.
“The highly-infectious Kent variant is now the most dominant form of the virus in Wales. This makes it even harder to predict what will happen as we begin to relax restrictions.
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“If we all continue to work together and remember to follow the basic rules to protect ourselves and each other, I hope we will be able to keep on taking steps to unlock Wales at each three-week review through the Spring.
“As we look ahead to the end of April, if we continue to see an improving public health picture, we will be able to consider what more we can do to support people to meet each other and what we can do to continue reopening our economy, for example, by looking at outdoor hospitality, the wedding sector and gyms."
The Chief Medical Officer in Wales has stated: "Our modelling scenarios suggest that overly-rapid relaxation combined with increased transmissibility of the now dominant variant and low public adherence to restrictions could lead to a third wave of virus circulation in late spring (May/June).
"If we are unable to avoid this scenario then it is likely that, despite the success of our vaccination programme, we would see a return in Wales to a period of high viral transmission with increased hospitalisations and deaths."