The landlady of a pub in Mansfield says she wouldn't turn away customers from Nottingham if Tier 3 restrictions are imposed next week out of fear of losing further custom.
Nottingham and its closest boroughs Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe are expected to be moved into the strictest measures in the coming days in a bid to curb continued flare-ups of Covid-19.
And if the rules come into force, hospitality venues that to not serve "substantial meals" would be forced to close their doors.
However, at present Mansfield is being left out of the Tier 3 restrictions and staying in the 'high alert' Tier 2 category, meaning all hospitality venues can stay open for the time being.
Concerns have been raised over whether people in Tier 3 measures would visit neighbouring Tier 2 areas to gain access to pubs and bars, permitting they are from the same household if meeting indoors. Other households can meet in groups of six can meet in pubs beer gardens under Tier 2 restrictions.
The landlady of a Mansfield-based venue says she does think people will try to do this, but that checking everybody's addresses on the door is "impossible".
Sharon Thomas, 45, who runs the Byron pub on Market Place, says trade is "down a lot" and that she wouldn't want to turn people away after comparing Mansfield recently to a "ghost town".
"I do think people will come from Nottingham to Mansfield if all the pubs shut in the city," she told Nottinghamshire Live.
"I know when Leicester went into lockdown [the pubs] were checking peoples' IDs when they came in, but to do that in every single place is going to be impossible.
"Custom is down a lot at the minute so you don't want to be turning people away.
"For hospitality, the future looks grim. I would say Mansfield is quite a busy town, but over the months it's dropped off.
"Before all this, a lot of students would come out and would get the train but you're not really seeing that as much anymore.
"The last couple of weeks it has been very, very quiet on a weekend. It's a ghost town."
Other venue owners in the town have also spoken about the difficulty of a sudden drop in trade since Tier 2 restrictions were imposed.
Jono Edwards, co-owner of eight sites including Andwhynot, Canvas, The Cheeky Monkey and Industria in the town centre, said the restrictions have "decimated" the industry.
He told Nottinghamshire Live: "We were trading down anyway because of Covid, but when Tier 2 kicked in most of our venues were operating 50 percent down.
"Tier 2 has decimated the industry because people don't want to be outside in the current weather.
"If we can stay in Tier 2 with the new support package, I feel more confident about the future and being able to retain our staff."
He added: "But the future depends on where we go moving forwards.
"The Eat Out to Help Out scheme gave us a massive opportunity, every restaurant did really well, and we are trying to look at it like we got our Christmas boom in August.
"Success at Christmas really depends on what Tier we are in."
Mansfield has narrowly escaped being moved into Tier 3 restrictions next week, despite a doubling in the number of new coronavirus cases.
But council leaders have warned that the town is at a "critical place", with more restrictions possible if guidance isn't followed "to the letter".
