A new scheme has been launched that enables residents to buy emergency workers in the island a well-deserved pint.

Craft beer shop Bottle Monkey has teamed up with several pubs and restaurants to give people the opportunity to thank the emergency services for their ongoing efforts in the face of Covid-19.

The ’Buy a Pint for a Blue Light’ initiative is the idea of the Douglas shop’s Chris Griffiths.

He explained: ’It’s a way for us to pay our thanks forward to all the guys that have been working on the frontline during the current pandemic.

’It also helps support local hospitality and drinks businesses.

’A lot of them are small independent companies and some of them have been struggling and we want to help them out if we can.’

’We’ll be putting a product on our web shop at bottlemonkey.im, where you can pay £5 and pick a venue of your choice from the guys that we deal with on the wholesale side. That money will be added up and, when the venues are allowed to open up again, we’ll take the pot for each venue and we’ll give it to the owners.

’They will then administer that as a sort of tab for anyone that has got a blue light card.’

’So if you’re a blue light card holder, you’ll be able to go to any of those venues, show your card and redeem it against a drink of your choice.

’It might give them something to look forward to after everything they’ve been dealing with.

He added: ’We want to get as much money into that pot to support the guys that have been working so hard and the guys that have had their businesses shut down overnight and taken a massive hit in their revenues.

’If it goes well, we’ll try and open it up beyond the companies we deal with presently. If there’s another venue you’d like to see on there, contact us via bottlemonkey.im’

l Currently taking part in the ’Buy a pint for a Blue Light’ scheme are Dream Bird, Secret Pizza Company, Foraging Vintners, Fishery, Compton Vaults and the Front Porch.