Poor summer weather putting strain on Fife seaside businesses

Poor weather during the Scottish school summer holidays is putting a strain on coastal businesses in the Kingdom.

It’s been wet, windy and grey throughout much of July, keeping tourists and day trippers away from Fife’s beaches, and away from the ice cream shops, chippies and cafés that can be found along the seaside.

Nova Gamble owns the popular Sands café at Aberdour, and she says footfall is much lower than normal at this time of year, leaving her worried about the rest of the summer.

Nova told Kingdom FM: “We always bring on extra staff during the summer when we expect it to be a lot busier, but it just hasn’t happened this year. You really don’t want to cut their hours, and we are keeping them on because we keep hoping the weather will turn, but it isn’t looking too good at the moment.

“We make money during the summer to keep us going through the winter. Obviously things like ice cream sales drop when it gets colder, so it’s an important time of year for us.

“The English schools are still on holiday until September, and they do come up here to stay, so if the weather does improve for August and the start of September, we still have a chance to have a decent summer. I just hope it does get a bit better.”

Nova also told us other business owners in the area have expressed similar concerns about the impact the weather is having on trade.

Forecasts for the next two weeks predict it won’t get hotter than 20 degrees Celsius, while it’s expected to rain for at least 7 out of the 14 days.