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Publicans in Angus have been praised for trying to stop pub crawls as they try to ward off any potential coronavirus outbreak.

With only 40 miles separating Brechin and Aberdeen and many residents commuting there for work, the businessmen have united to introduce their own safety rules.

Owners of the Bridgend Bar & Lounge, The Caledonian, City Royal, East End Bar & Nova Suite, The Park Bar and Victoria Bar will operate a “one pub, one day” policy and introduce a booking system.

They are also requesting residents who have socialised in Aberdeen in the last two weeks to refrain from visiting their establishments.

A spokesman for the group said: “With the current situation in Aberdeen, we realise in our opinion one of the factors for the cluster is a lack of social distancing and people’s movements between several establishments.

“As a result of this, we have decided, in the interests of protecting public health and to keep everyone as safe as possible, for the next seven days, we are all implementing a strict booking system and discouraging pub crawls.”

Scott McNeil from the Bridgend Bar said the measures could become mandatory across the country if pubs are to remain open and he is confident his clientele back him.

“The Pub Watch Group decided to call an emergency meeting when we came up with the term ‘one pub, one day’.

“It’s really unacceptable people moving about like they would on a normal weekend on a pub crawl in the current climate.

“A big part of licensing is public health, so in the interests of that we feel it would help track and trace in Scotland.

“We don’t want it to come to Brechin, but if it does, hopefully, through this, we can shut things down a lot quicker.”

A key part of the new rules will be a strict booking system.

Scott said: “We are running a booking system and it was getting a bit relaxed and we were allowing walk-ins if there was space.  Now we have gone back to a strict booking system – no entry if you haven’t booked.

“I don’t think a lot of pubs would survive a second lockdown – it would be disastrous for everyone.

“That is why we are promoting one pub, one day because you can watch what people are drinking and if they are threatening to move on, and if we think they have had too much, we will post it on our closed group Pub Watch page.”