WETHERSPOON is to open more of its pubs across the country next week as the easing of the lockdown continues, the company has announced.

A further 44 pubs in England will be open for business from April 26, adding to the 394 which opened last week.

The new pub openings include The Last Post Weston Road, Southend, and those in Guildford, Ilkeston, Lincoln, Morecambe, Camborne, Driffield, Nottingham and Reading, and London.

Wetherspoon will also go ahead with opening 60 of its pubs in Scotland and 32 in Wales next week and three pubs in Northern Ireland on April 30.

It will result in 533 of the company's 871 pubs being open.

From April 26 all Wetherspoon pubs, including those that opened on April 12, will be extending their opening times for an extra hour each day.

Customers will be able to enter the pubs to gain access to the outside area and also to use toilets.

Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson said: "We are looking forward to opening the extra pubs in England as well as those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"We look forward to welcoming our customers and staff back to our pubs."

The announcement comes after JD Wetherspoon and other chains such as Young's, Greene King and Pizza Hut signed a letter to the Prime Minister calling for the road map out of lockdown to go ahead as planned and for coronavirus restrictions to be fully lifted from June 21.

Last week pubs and restaurants reopened in England for outdoor hospitality, but the 38 signatories warned around two-thirds were not able to do so and "none is breaking even".

The letter reads: "We must be driven by data not dates - and the data say it is safe to confirm now the reopening of indoor hospitality on May 17 and the lifting of all social-distancing restrictions on hospitality on June 21.

"This is vital as Government support for hospitality tapers away then, and without it many businesses will be unviable.

"The Prime Minister set out the right path. He should stick to it and not let it be derailed by talk of vaccine passports in pubs and restaurants."

READ MORE: 

Construction firm hit with £25k fine after wall fell on neighbour's home

Hundreds of diners tempted to new dining hotspot in spring sunshine

Environment Secretary George Eustice said it is "too early to say" whether all hospitality businesses can reopen on May 17.

He said: "But I think we are on track in the sense that we are on track with the rollout of the vaccination programme."

Mr Eustice said the impact of the recent easing of restrictions will be assessed "before moving to the next stage".

A Government spokesperson said: "We are continuing to make good progress in tackling the virus, with case rates and hospitalisations down and more than 42 million vaccine doses have been administered.

"But we cannot be complacent or lose sight of the risks this virus poses.

"That is why we must continue to take a cautious and irreversible approach to reopening and monitor the data ahead of each step of the road map.

"We are doing everything we can to back hospitality as it prepares to reopen, including offering pubs restart grants worth up to £18,000 - part of our much wider £352 billion support package."