Restaurant staff on Deansgate say Extinction Rebellion protests have cost their businesses thousands of pounds.
Day three of the four-day long demonstrations is well under way as a series of ‘rebel workshops’ takes place this afternoon.
Dozens of tents are still pitched down side roads, where many of the smaller and more independent restaurants are located.
Sara Enriquez, 27, is the assistant manager of Spanish tapas and wine restaurant La Viña.
She told the Manchester Evening News that the restaurant had lost around £3,000 over the course of the weekend because the walk-ins they’d usually expect had gone elsewhere.
She said: “We understand that the protesters are doing something good and trying to raise awareness but it’s meant we’ve lost around £3,000 over the course of the weekend.
"Customers went elsewhere to places like the Northern Quarter where there are no disruptions.”
Enriquez said that her staff had been allowing demonstrators to use toilet facilities and that most of them had been polite and grateful.
She added: “I would say at our busiest we were only full to around 70pc capacity last night, when usually it’d be 100pc. The business won’t be affected by this in the long term but it is definitely a loss, especially at the weekend.”
The manager of another Deansgate restaurant, whose entrance has been blocked by tents, said his business lost £7,000 last night alone.
The manager asked not to be named but explained that around 100 covers went empty on Saturday evening, the busiest time for the restaurant.
He criticised the protestors and said: “You can tell some of them have never done a day’s work in their lives so they obviously don’t care about the disruption they’re causing.”
