Harrogate district business owners have expressed frustration about still waiting for government grants intended to help them reopen safely.
The government announced in the March budget that restart grants of up to £18,000 would be available from April 1.
Harrogate Borough Council, which is administering the grants locally, has previously said it hoped to be able to start awarding grants from April 26.
It has received more than 1,600 applications and although at least a third have been paid, many business owners are still waiting for them and some are exasperated by a lack of communication from the council.
Kate Borgen, owner of Ikonik Hair on King’s Road, was disappointed not to have received the grant before reopening:
“The problem for our industry is that demand is so high right now so all our costs are high because of rising costs for products. Without having that restart grant it’s been quite difficult.”
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Matthew Norris, owner of Sandwiches and More in Bilton and on Royal Parade, Harrogate applied for a grant as soon as the scheme opened on April 8 and is still waiting.
He told the Stray Ferret he had emailed the council twice in the last week, and sent messages on Facebook and Twitter, without receiving a response.
The scheme has been criticised for coming too late to help many businesses which reopened on April 12.
Its aim was to help non-essential retail and hospitality businesses to reopen safely but stringent anti-fraud checks imposed by the national government on local authorities has meant that almost none were able to send out money in time for the initial easing of lockdown restrictions.
A spokesperson for Harrogate Borough council said:
“We’ve been working very hard since last year to administer the various financial support schemes the government has offered. Grants worth millions of pounds have been paid to thousands of businesses across the district.
More than 1,600 restart grant applications have been received. So far, we’ve approved 902 of those and payments totalling £6.8 million have been made to businesses. We will continue to work as hard as we can to process the other applications and – subject to the checks that have to take place – we aim to have made all payments by May 14.”