The manager of a Chirk hotel says the local lockdown is already hitting businesses hard in the region.

Paul Rogers, manager of The Hand Hotel in Church Street, is worried of the impact the local lockdown in the county will have on businesses like his.

Mr Rogers said bookings at his hotel for the weekend were all cancelled on the back of the news that Wrexham would be entering lockdown last Thursday.

He worries it will make for a more difficult time than the initial nationwide lockdown.

“It’s definitely going to affect businesses,” he said. “The biggest way it will affect our hotel is that straight away we have lost all of our bookings for accommodation for the weekend.

“They have all been cancelled – we have 20 rooms and at this time of year we usually tend to find 95 per cent of the rooms are booked out.

“Since July when places began to reopen, we have had a fantastic couple of months. It has been very busy and was almost compensating for the months before that.

“But now, it’s like a hammer blow and we’re back to square one again.

“It’s going to cause some problems.”

New rules mean people can only visit indoor public venues with those who in their household, and must not attend places with those from other households.

With people like Mr Rogers having to appeal to a limited group of potential customers, he has launched some offers to encourage people in the local area to continue supporting the hotel, bar and restaurant.

He is calling on the government to offer financial support for businesses like his in order to keep them open.

He said: “In this trade, because of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme which ran last month, most staff were taken off furlough, and we can’t reintroduce people to that.

“We have to wait for a new scheme to start which is in early November, so all-in-all, it will be a tough time.

“We worked so hard over lockdown and during the reopening, and we can’t thank people enough for how they have supported us, but this is now going to be back to the drawing board, or worse.

“When we came out of the first lockdown we were allowed to do what we wanted to a certain extent, but now we can only open with a lot of extra restrictions.

“It’s made things more difficult – I’m just hoping there is going to be some financial help from the government over this period.”

With Chirk being situated so close to the Anglo-Welsh border, Mr Rodgers fears the number of customers for businesses in areas in similar locations will see a big decline.

He added: “Although we come under the Wrexham banner, we’re around 10 miles away from the town.

“Our customers from the English side of the border can’t come to us. The people making the decisions are not familiar with the area.

“We’ve always thought October was going to be the time when things would get tough, but I think the local lockdown has made it worse.”