BACK TO WEDDING NORMALITY? What are your thoughts?

As things now stand, Scotland's government has issued updated guidelines, which seemingly paves the way for citizens who may not know they have Covid, to attend weddings. Thereby placing fellow guests and hospitality workers at risk. Guidelines are currently for 50 wedding guests, rising to 100 guests on 7th June. Face coverings are required, social distancing is to be in place, alcohol is permitted, as is live music without dancing. This is, to say the very least, going to be a challenging set of circumstances.

We can now prove that there is a better, safer way in which to proceed. We therefore call simply, for logic. Stating the obvious, what we outline below can similarly be applied very quickly across the span of hospitality.

(This Blog is an adaptation of a Balbirnie House Facebook Post published 2pm Thursday 6th May 2021)

Scroll to that date to read all comments.

11,000 people go clubbing in Liverpool last week, without any social distancing, but we still can't have dancing at weddings? Here's a solution to end this.

We now have over 300 future weddings booked at Balbirnie House. It is suggested that England will have removal of social distancing restrictions on 21st June. We await Scotland government updates.

In the meantime, what about all weddings taking place between now, and when Scotland's government issues 'guidance' and a date for the removal of social distancing.

From all ongoing discussions with our many clients, weddings categorically do not want photography with face coverings. There is stated desire to let dancing start again. Simply put, weddings wish to revert back to normality, with all love and celebration with nearest and dearest ... that is the love, humanity and tradition of weddings and celebrations.

Over recent days our main twitter feed has been contemplating the potentials of Balbirnie House pro-actively creating a temporary Covid 'safety system', which would enable us to fully re-open for weddings without social distancing requirements. NB Optional and only for wedding clients who wish to do so.

The header tweet has now been contemplated by over 22,500 people, and there are currently no valid reasons stated whatsoever, as to why we should not proceed. Visit our Twitter.

The proposed system is based on Liverpool's trials last week with apparent gig pilot success for 11,000 people. This was made possible by everyone confirming negative Covid test results.

Balbirnie House would propose to go one step further, by also investing in wedding Trusted Trace App.

But we could only do this, if all relevant wedding guests were in agreement to all working together to ensure everything is 100% intact.

(If a wedding wishes NOT to go ahead with what we propose, and to proceed as per the existing government guidelines in relation to social distancing, face coverings, no dancing etc, then stating the obvious we can do that ...)

We have the team in place, the infrastructure and capabilities to deliver what we propose.

There is now a service to order free packs of rapid lateral flow tests to be sent to your home.

In addition, there are now Community testing sites available across Fife, providing quick and easy access to testing.

Current Scotland government guidance for weddings is split into SHOULD and MUST. The MUST legal requirements ... 'Guests MUST wear face coverings (inside) other than when eating and drinking' - an interpretation of that is if you have a glass in your hand, you are drinking. The other MUST is in relation to closure timings at the end of the special day, straightforward ...

Everything else, is stated as guidance - all of it.

We need to respect the rule of law, but we can certainly choose to re-interpret how we can proceed with the combination of hospitality and guidance, if we can deliver a new system that renders the guidance as obsolete.

Our thinking is, that as we can deliver this 'system', our Risk Assessments can then also incorporate the logic of our hotel brigade taking eg twice weekly Covid tests, and on that basis, we immediately then revert back to normality for weddings.

If everything and everyone is Covid-free, and App records are flawless, we would be happy to accept that all other forms of guidance can be logically re-interpreted back to a return to normality. And perhaps even more importantly, in creating the proposed system we can see no valid reason as to how or why any representative of any authority should wish us not to proceed, let alone having any law in place to prevent us from proceeding.

The same testing requirements and App process would similarly be required for anyone visiting the hotel to provide services in association with the special day.

Our ability to provide the backdrop for any wedding, is of course fully dependent on anything that becomes a new legal requirement in Scotland.

What are your thoughts? If you have your wedding booked, would you be happy for all guests to proceed with this?

Many people are nervous about everything that has happened, would this 'safety system' give confidence in attending weddings?

Let's go a stage further. The most heartbreaking thing we are seeing today, is incoming enquiries one after another about making bookings for example, for Golden Weddings. So if we created the above 'system' for weddings, we can also create it for Golden Weddings.

Any feedback most appreciated, please comment below.

Yours in Hospitality, and all best wishes, Nicholas Russell / MD Balbirnie House 😀

The first four Facebook comments:

Above Blog was subsequently turned into a mainstream article, published mid May 2021 via Dram Scotland, many thanks to Editor Susan Young.

SCOTLAND GOVERNMENT RESPONSE 9.6.2021

As per guidelines, Scotland government was meant to respond to the above within 20 working days, therefore 4.6.2021 

Having not had any response, Jenny Gilruth MSP, Scotland's Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, very kindly offered to intervene and directly request a response. The below was then forthcoming on 8.6.2021, for ease of reference here are the key points, followed by a few thoughts, and then full government response below. 

SUMMARY RESPONSE:

A SUGGESTION THAT WEDDING NORMALITY MAY ONLY BE POSSIBLE WHEN ALL ADULTS HAVE BEEN VACCINATED? (NB two jabs each!)

DELTA VARIANT CHANGES PLANS FOR A RETURN TO WEDDING NORMALITY! 

DELTA VARIANT CHANGES MARCH 2020 ROUTEMAP TO NORMALITY!

A NEGATIVE COVID TEST RESULT (USING LATERAL FLOW DEVICE) DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT THE INDIVIDUAL IS FREE OF COVID, ONLY THAT CORONAVIRUS HAS NOT BEEN DETECTED! (THEREBY, THE SYSTEMS AS DEFINED BY TRUSTED TRACE ARE NOT WORKABLE IN SCOTLAND!)

As is stated above, TrustedTrace is seemingly integrated with Crown Commercial Service, the biggest public procurement organisation in the UK. 

Scotland's government is therefore saying that the systems as defined, offered and set by Trusted Trace, and as integrated with Crown Commercial Service, are inoperable for Scotland. 

The date we have all been hoping to see establish for a return to wedding normality at Balbirnie House, was circa 21.6.2021 - in line with everything the UK government has previously outlined. 

However, the best guess date by which all Scotland adults (who wish to receive vaccine) are actually vaccinated, well that's anyone's guess. Underlined, fully vaccinated with two doses.

It's widely acknowledged that NHS Scotland are targeting to complete first vaccines for all adults by the end of July 2021. When and if allowing the further 8 to 12 week gap for completing second vaccines, this would theoretically take a return to wedding normality towards the end of September, but this is of course stated as total speculation, and in the absence of any clarity from those in charge of making decisions. 

In the meantime, we wait and hope, as that's all we can do. Thoughts are with all Scotland wedding venues, couples who are holding bookings, and all associate wedding suppliers. 

The exact status for anyone organising a wedding, all venues and all suppliers, appears to be: 

- No clarity on return to total wedding normality as at 21st June 2021.

- Perhaps the eventual return to total wedding normality when all adults have received two doses of vaccine?

In the meantime at Balbirnie House, we have weddings scheduled nearly every single day through summer 2021, and our amazing wedding planning team confirm that all wedding clients have of course fully accepted that weddings will be proceeding with any required ongoing restrictions in place as a necessity, as defined by Scotland government, and restrictions themselves however, certainly won't be detracting from the joy and celebration of the wedding day. So, onwards we go! 

For the very first time, we are also now seeing clients with eg re-scheduled 2022 wedding dates, getting back in touch saying, 'We cannot wait any longer, we're now prepared to go ahead in 2021 even if there are restrictions!' 

All best wishes, 

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie House 

Full ScotGov response:

DIRECTORATE FOR CULTURE, TOURISM AND MAJOR EVENTS
DCTME : Tourism and Major Events

abcd

Nicholas Russell Nicholas@balbirnie.co.uk

Our Reference: 202100200468 8 June 2021
Dear Mr Russell,

Thank you for your e-mail of 10 May 2021, concerning your suggestion for piloting a system to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID – 19 at weddings held in the Balbirnie House Hotel. The Scottish Government’s Tourism and Major Events Team has been asked to respond.

We understand the impact that COVID-19 has had on businesses and individuals. We welcome the efforts and sacrifices made to help contain the virus. In order to understand issues affecting the sector we have engaged regularly with a range of stakeholders on a consistent basis.

We appreciate your suggestion of a system where potential guests declare themselves COVID – 19 free prior to attending a wedding, following testing, to avoid the need for physical distancing.

The decisions the Scottish Government are making are difficult and complex ones. This reflects the fact that we are currently at a delicate and fragile point in what we hope is a transition to a different way of dealing with this virus. We believe that vaccinations are opening the path to a less restrictive way of dealing with Covid – one less driven by case numbers. But as not all adults have been fully vaccinated with two doses so far, we are not quite there yet. We are also dealing with a new, faster spreading variant; the “Indian” or “April 02” variant has now been renamed by the World Health Organisation as Delta. This variant is spreading faster than previous variants of the virus. We now believe it accounts for well over half of our daily cases.

This is a new development that has arisen since we set out our indicative route map back in March. At this critical state, to avoid being knocked off course completely, the Scottish Government must still err on the side of caution. It is important that we ease restrictions carefully in order that we continue to suppress the virus and protect public health.

Scottish Ministers, special advisers and the Permanent Secretary are covered by the terms of the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. See www.lobbying.scot

St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG www.gov.scot

There are currently no plans to permit trials of new experimental measures aimed at supressing COVID– 19, at individual hospitality venues.

I understand that where asymptomatic testing using lateral flow devices (“LFD”) is being used, this does not avoid the need for other mitigation measures, such as face coverings or PPE and physical distancing. A negative result using LFD does not guarantee that an individual testing negative does not have coronavirus, only that coronavirus was not detected. There are also sometimes false positive tests. It therefore appears that testing will not offer a realistic route to “more normal” weddings.

Physical distancing and good hand hygiene remain the most effective measures in reducing the transmission of COVID-19. At a wedding reception, held in a hospitality venue, 2 metre physical distancing between people in separate households should be maintained. Please note that a 1 metre physical distancing exemption applies to the contained hospitality areas of the premises i.e. the bar, restaurant, dining room or café. Clear signage must be provided by venue to indicate that guests are entering the 1 metre zone.

Further guidance on wedding receptions is available as part of the Scottish Government “Coronavirus (COVID-19): tourism and hospitality sector guidance”.

For further information on protection levels, please see the latest guidance, available at: “Coronavirus (COVID-19) protection levels: what you can do” at Coronavirus (COVID-19): local protection levels - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government will not leave any restrictions in place for any longer than they are necessary to meet our responsibility to safeguard the people of Scotland. As this situation is evolving, I would encourage you to keep up to date by checking our website at: https://www.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid- 19.

Yours sincerely

Clive Brown

TME : Tourism Policy

Scottish Ministers, special advisers and the Permanent Secretary are covered by the terms of the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. See www.lobbying.scot

St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG www.gov.scot