DUMBARTON’S business owners have returned to long-awaited normal - or near normal - service as lockdown restrictions eased and the area reopened to customers.

The town’s High Street came alive once again to the buzz of people, as gyms, hair and nail salons, leisure centres, dance and fitness academies, restaurants and pubs reopened their doors.

From Monday, April 26, cafes were also allowed to start serving indoors.

With gymgoers and dance fanatics hamstrung for much of the past 12 months due to various lockdown measures, local fitness leaders couldn’t wait to see everyone back and with a smile on their face.

Mani Hussain, who has run Energie Fitness with relatives Dani and Jamal since they moved their fitness business to Dumbarton back in 2018, were ecstatic to reopen the gym’s doors, and had customer’s queuing outside from the early hours.

He told the Reporter: “It’s been amazing today. Since six o’clock in the morning people were queueing up from outside, they just wanted to get in.

"I think they were more glad than us to be here, everyone’s been phenomenal.

“It’s been quite a crazy four months, we didn’t think we were going to be shut for that long. We thought it would just be for a few weeks, but they kept extending it.

"Hopefully this will be the last one. Everyone’s happy to be back, the staff are happy and I’m happy I’m here.

“Initially when we opened, it took us a long time to get set up, we had a lot of problems but when we opened everyone was amazing.

“People are happy here.”

Mani has been overwhelmed with the amount of people who have returned to his gym, eager to dust off those lockdown cobwebs.

“Everyone has supported us,” he continued, “people have stuck by us, it shows that our members are always behind us.

“Without them, we’d be nothing. The staff, the members, they’ve stuck by us.

“It’s like a family here, everyone looks out for each other.

“We’re focusing on giving our members our full attention, and making sure everyone is happy coming back.

“Going forward, we are going to introduce some more classes. W

"We’ve already had about 30 new members today!

“Just in April alone we’ve had over 200 members join back up.

“When we first moved here we didn’t know much about Dumbarton, but the gym has a lot of potential here because the people are great.

“It’s a great wee community.”

And Mani knows that lockdown has had a negative effect on people’s mental health, and insists that the gym is now there to help people through it.

“Coming to the gym isn’t just about getting a six pack,” Mani said, “it’s about your mental wellbeing, that’s the most important part.”

The Artizan Shopping Centre’s very own Believe Dance Academy didn’t get a chance to open its doors before lockdown closed the country, but now dance class leader Lauren Millar is buzzing to restart her classes, and see local children dance again.

Lauren told the Reporter: “We tried online Zoom classes but it just wasn’t happening, the kids weren’t enjoying it at all.

“So we’ve been very eager to get back in, we’ve spent a lot of money decorating and everything’s ready to go.

“It’s exciting stuff down here today.

"This time last year I thought I was close to closing, I’m not going to lie. There were points where I thought I’m not going to get back to any kids.

“But then in September my numbers doubled, and in this lockdown I’ve just had constant messages asking to join. The numbers have got crazy.

“I was walking through the town today and people look happy, it was nice.”

Damon Scott, chief executive of the Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce added: “This is a positive move for business and there is optimism around the government’s direction of travel towards a much fuller re-opening of the Scottish economy.

“As more retailers open their doors we are already seeing signs that a nation that has been in lockdown since before Christmas is ready to get out shopping with queues forming and local car parks filling up.

“The Loch Lomond area will be the big winner in West Dunbartonshire as a result of the lifting of travel restrictions with many of our tourist and visitor-dependent businesses benefitting from the influx of visitors that we have seen.”