PUBS in South Lakeland have pledged to approach the end of lockdown restrictions this month with caution.

On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced limits on social contact would be ending on July 19.

It will mean pubs can increase capacities and the public can meet indoors in larger groups with people from different households.

Despite this, The Riflemans Arms in Kendal will be keeping in place certain measures to ensure its customers feel safe.

Mel Rollason, landlady, said she did not want to be ‘cramming people in’ to the Greenside site from July 19.

“It’s a community pub, a lot of our customers are quite elderly,” she said.

“So we don’t really want to scare people.

“We’ll gently ease it back into normality.

“You are going to find that people are still a bit apprehensive and unsure.”

Bar stools will remain out of use for the time being to ensure customers still feel comfortable approaching the bar.

Mrs Rollason, 37, said mask-wearing would be optional but that hand sanitiser stations would remain out in the pub.

Limits on the numbers of people allowed in will remain in place.

Elsewhere, Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery, which runs The Royal Barn and The Orange Tree in the town, is also approaching ‘independence day’ with caution.

Stu Taylor, a director of the brewery, said: “We are not just going to open up for a free-for-all.

“We are still going to be keeping quite a few of our measures in place until we get the public confidence.”

When July 19 arrives, the plan is for the brewery to carry on running the two pubs in the same manner as at the moment, subject to further announcements by the prime minister.

“Ultimately, the public need to feel safe and comfortable,” said Mr Taylor, 44.

“In both businesses, we are not rushing in.

“We still need to be sensitive.”

The future for The Royal Barn in particular has permanently changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It ceased to be a wet pub last year, and began serving takeaway pizzas to help it stay afloat.

When the Government made it necessary for members of the public to have ‘substantial meals’ with any alcoholic drink, the site moved to offering indoor meals.

Mr Taylor said the food service would remain in place.

“If we hadn’t have done food, we might not have survived,” he said.

“It helped a lot.”