Bank holiday takings down due to parasite - traders

Hospitality businesses in south Devon have blamed an outbreak of a waterborne parasite for hitting bank holiday trade.

About 2,500 properties in Hillhead, upper Brixham and Brixham remain under a boil water notice following an outbreak of cryptosporidium which was detected in the water supply on 14 May.

A pub in Kingswear reported a 50% drop in trade compared with a normal May bank holiday weekend.

South West Water (SWW) acknowledged it was a "disruptive" time for many but "good progress" was being made.

• What is the water parasite making some people ill?

Health officials said there have been 77 confirmed cases of cryptosporidiosis since the start of the outbreak.

Hannah Canu, the landlady of the Ship Inn in Kingswear, said it had been a quiet bank holiday weekend as visitors were not risking coming to the area.

She said people were worried about catching the parasite, which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting.

"I'd say around 50% have not come down for the bank holiday," she said.

"You see a lot of people walking around, but I think they don't trust coming in, just in case they might catch it."

Simon Webb, who runs the Flour Flower Cafe and Florist in Brixham, said it definitely was not as busy as it usually is in the town for the time of year.

He said while he feels the situation has been "blown out of proportion", he knows a lot of people are concerned.

"We've had people we've been speaking to who we know are coming to the town later in the year and their remarks are we hope the water crisis is sorted by then," he said.

Businesses further afield from the affected area said they had also been affected with customers having worries about the outbreak.

Paignton-based Beverley Holidays said it had been reassuring customers the water at their park is not from the area where cryptosporidium has been found.

Director Claire Flower said: "We've had a lot of anxious customers and our team have been absolutely amazing at reassuring our customers, because they have needed it.

"We have had quite a few calling up needing that reassurance and they just want to know what the real story is."

SWW incident director David Harris said it was a "disruptive" time for people in the area still affected by a boil water notice.

He said the firm was making "good progress", but added the boil water notice would only be lifted once the company and health officials are confident it is safe to do so.

"I'm sorry this is taking so long, but we need to be meticulous in resolving this problem before we can safely lift the boil water notice," he said.

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