A PUB had to call police so it could eject about 200 people from its premises in Five Lane Ends over social distancing concerns on Saturday night.

The incident came after coronavirus lockdown restrictions were eased earlier in the day for pubs, restaurants and barbers.

In a statement, the Lane Ends pub said some drinkers in its tap room had abused its offer of four bottles for £10 and they were passing them out to friends in the car park.

They refused to listen to staff and the police were called. They arrived at 7pm and told staff to close the pub for safety reasons.

A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police did not want to comment on whether there had been any trouble at other pubs in the district.

On Saturday during the day the city centre seemed busier but not as busy as a normal Saturday. Pub-goers seemed to understand the need for the new rules brought in by pubs and the atmosphere in many places was good-natured.

But leading Bradford doctor Professor John Wright has expressed his fears about whether the city will go back into strict lockdown because of increased contact in pubs and inequalities that residents face.

In his latest blog for the BBC, he says that rumours swirling round the city that a lockdown will be announced today are false but they are causing “understandable worries”.

He quotes BRI Accident and Emergency consultant Dr David Greenhorn, who he says had to treat people who got into fights at VE Day parties and was braced for the same this weekend.

Dr Greenhorn predicted a new spike in Covid-19 admissions in 10 days’ time as a result and thinks this could result in a new lockdown. Only a second lockdown, in his view, would teach people the importance of social distancing.

“I see a lack of social distancing all the time, I see people just ignoring the rules,” said Dr Greenhorn.

The Lane Ends was open again yesterday but with stricter conditions and its 100 seats were being allocated on a first-come first-seated basis.

Its statement said: “As many people have seen on social media, yesterday was quite eventful. Firstly thank you to everyone that was sitting down in the lounge, you made our job much easier on that side of the pub.

“The problems started mid afternoon when too many people wanted to get in the tap room and those that were in tap room were not abiding by the social distancing rules and refusing to listen to us.

“People were then buying our four bottles for £10 and passing them to their mates in the car park. Luckily the police came at 7pm and told us to close for safety reasons.

“So today we will be working differently. The beer garden will be closed. We have 100 seats available in the pub which will be allocated on a first-come first-seated basis. Once all the seats are taken we are sorry but we will have to refuse entry until a table becomes available.

“A queueing system at the top entrance will be used and you will be escorted to an available table. Also we will be operating table service only.

“Again thank you to those that used common sense yesterday.”

Police denied that they closed the pub because hundreds of people had gathered in a breach of lockdown rules as mentioned on social media.

The police spokesperson confirmed that officers attended the pub and stayed while people left.

The spokesperson said: “Police attended licensed premises following a concern for safety report that was not linked to overcrowding. A group were dispersed and the matter has been referred to licensing.”

An eye witness said he caught the aftermath “with the police marching everyone out”.

He added: “There was no social distancing taking place in the pub and it had close because it had too many people in.

“One of the police officers said over 200 were in there which is crazy.”

The Lane Ends previously said it was opening with social distancing rules in place in accordance with Government guidelines.

These included asking drinkers for their names and addresses, having table service only, and not allowing anyone else in the pub when the seating is full with space in the beer garden as overflow.

Prof Wright said he not surprised that Bradford was second in the table of areas with the worst positive results in testing for coronavirus because of poverty.

The head of the Bradford Institute for Health Research says in his blog: “High population density and multi-occupancy housing create ideal conditions for rapid transmission of the virus. Fragile economic existences necessitate low-paid, key worker jobs that have kept the country alive, yet have created such deadly risks of occupational exposure. Large South Asian populations have faced higher risks of death than their white British neighbours.”

He said that the number of cases at Bradford Royal Infirmary are “the tip of the Covid-19 iceberg” and that staff remain busier than in neighbouring Leeds, Huddersfield and Airedale.

“We are seeing more patients from multi-generational households confirming evidence that more young people are catching the virus from mixing together, and then bringing it home to their parents and grandparents,” he added.

“Crucially, when we look at temporal trends, our cases are falling. We can see spikes over the last three months - perhaps related to socialising from VE Day and Eid.

"We call the longest, recent spike the Cummings Curve as it follows the widely publicised transgressions of the Prime Minister’s adviser, which led the news at the end of May.

“So we are not Leicester yet, but there is no room for complacency and our outbreak plans are well rehearsed. We have worked closely with our communities from the very start - this is their city and we trust our citizens to make the right choices. We are nervous about the pubs - alcohol has a tendency to cloud judgements and lead to love or war: social distancing is tricky for both.

“Bars will be the riskiest of places to be for the next few weeks.

“We will continue to keep a nervous eye on the Covid-19 league table, but with insight that tells us that this is not just a league table of infections, it is also a league table of inequality.”