ARGUABLY, ice rinks have been one of the biggest hit sporting venues during the pandemic. Eager gliders have not been able to tie up their skates for the majority of the past year or so.

However, yesterday keen skaters received the green light they had been desperately waiting for. Step Three of the roadmap out of lockdown was reached.

This allowed Bradford Ice Arena to finally reopen their doors for a second attempt after only getting a few months in during their previous effort at the back end of 2020.

Although restrictions like a capacity of 50, one-way systems, sanitising stations and mask wearing when off the ice are in place, the venue's manager is just pleased to see people in the building again.

"It has been really busy," said Andrew Brown.

"It is brilliant to have people back on the ice. It has been great to see some familiar faces and some new ones.

"It is nice to know the people of Bradford have been missing ice skating and wanted to come back."

The lasting effects of Covid-19 will be hard to shake off though with exciting plans on hold and survival mode in full force.

The rink was unable to take its ice up throughout the duration of lockdown, so the electricity bill has still existed while no revenue has been coming in.

Andy added: "It has crippled us financially this last year.

"We had been saving up for a new chiller, but we have had to spend that money on the bills. The electricity meter has still be ticking over at a fair old rate.

"Some rinks took their ice up because they are on a ground floor, but ours is a little bit tricker to do.

"If we had known back in March last year, what we know now, we would have taken the ice up.

"For the next month, it will just be a case of making less of a loss. We will not make a profit on only having 50 people in at a time.

"It is not the best time to be opening because at this time of year, we are at a lose anyway. Our busy period is December through to February.

"We won't start making a profit again until October - November time. We have got to ride these months out."