A DUNFERMLINE councillor went on a pub crawl on Tuesday – all in the line of duty of course.

Garry Haldane, who represents Dunfermline Central and sits on Fife Licensing Board, praised bar owners after visiting five beer gardens on Tuesday.

He stopped by The Olive Tree, Fabric, the Monarch Bar and the Elizabethan, as well as PJ Molloy's, whose outdoor drinking area opens today (Thursday).

Cllr Haldane said: "I decided to visit all the beer gardens within my ward to see how they were operating and to find out how things were regarding residents and the overall uptake in using their local establishments.

"In my ward there are five which are open during the day, there is one which will open Thursday to Sunday.

"In each and every place I visited I found everyone to be aware of the restrictions and guidelines and also they were speaking about them to their fellow patrons and were well aware of their responsibilities."

He added: "I did, however, find that in each establishment, the understanding of what was required of them, to adhere to the guidelines, was mixed. This is an example, I believe, of how confused people are regarding government guidelines."

Cllr Haldane said he had reminded licence-holders about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements and that details of customer names and contact numbers, which were collected by each bar for possible test and trace purposes, should be kept private.

He said: "I visited during the day and found no cause for concern. I'd heard that on Monday it was really busy and harder for them to ensure social distancing but it was much quieter during the day on Tuesday and there were no issues reported to me.

"They're all waiting for the one-metre-plus rule to come in as the current guidelines really restrict how many people you can fit in."

Cllr Haldane said he wanted to give "a big thank-you" to the pubs "who are so sincere in looking after their customers and doing everything they can to make us and their staff safe".

He added: "Dunfermline has, and always has had, a responsible group of licence-holders and they should be congratulated on their hard work.

"This is one of the reasons why Dunfermline achieves such high accolades within the tourist industry and with the support of Delivering Dunfermline can bring back a vibrant and successful town for us all to be proud of."