THE extension of Covid-19 restrictions by Prime Minister Boris Johnson has forced a Whitchurch town centre venue to delay reopening plans for another four weeks.

Percy's Cafe and Bar, in Watergate, has been closed as a music venue since March last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite other pubs and bars being able to reopen to the public earlier this year, Percy's small size means at has remained shut as it would remain financially unviable to open.

With England set to drop social-distancing restrictions on June 21, Percy's had drawn up plans to reopen with live music.

These plans have now been pushed back another four weeks following the government's latest announcement.

Venue owner Mark Steptoe says the decision to postpone live gigs for another four weeks comes with a 'heavy heart'.

Mark said: "After last night's government decision to postpone the relaxing of restrictions from the original date of June 21 to a new four-week extensional period date of July 19.

"It comes with great sadness that we must announce that all live music events due to take place here at Percy's Cafe Bar and Live Music Venue during this period will unfortunately now have to be postponed as we'll not be able to operate successfully nor be able to run these shows under these constraints.

"We will aim and strive to reschedule as many of these postponed events as possible or include the bands on other events on our already busy schedule for the remainder of the year where possible.

"I hope everyone can understand our reasoning as it's not been taken light-hearted.

"A lot of thought and consideration has gone into this decision as many other venues are now faced with that same decision.

"We've been working extremely hard behind the scenes to get everything ready and were very excited about re-opening on June 25.

"Now we'll just have to wait a further four weeks for that to happen.

"We are aiming for the new re-opening and re-launch of live music at Percy's to now take place on Friday, July 23.

"Fingers crossed that there are no more uncontrollable delays that are out of our hands.

"We can't wait to welcome you all back to our venue and we thank you immensely for all the continued love and support you've shown us and given us during these extremely difficult and testing times."