The owner of a popular city centre venue has said it is the “biggest relief ever” to reopen today, after the crumbling Central Plaza forced its closure months ago.

Laser Quest, which also houses Total Enigma Escape Rooms, has reopened after more than two months behind the safety cordon which was put in place along Victoria Viaduct and neighbouring streets after the dilapidated Central Plaza Hotel was declared a risk to public safety.

Laura Waters, the owner of Laser Quest and Total Enigma, said it was “amazing” to see the party and entertainment venues open again after the demolition of the Central Plaza took a step forward last week, allowing Bush Brow to be reopened.

“It’s come at the best time,” said Carlisle resident Laura, 38.

“Christmas and New Year is our busiest time of year.”

While mum-of-two Laura is delighted to be back up and running, she said the last two months have been “exceptionally hard” for her and her staff - most of whom could not be kept on following the closure.

“It took a couple of weeks before we could get any access at all to our building.

“Then I was able to move Total Power, my solar power business, to another office so I could start trading again.

“But here, it’s fixed. It would have been impossible to move Laser Quest to somewhere else.

“All in all, I think we’ve lost about £80,000. It’s going to take quite some time to recover.”

Laura added that the unusual nature of the Central Plaza issue was also causing issues with insurance.

“Because the road closures were classed as non-damage prevention of access, we can only claim a small percentage of what we’ve lost,” she explained.

Laura said she felt abandoned by both local and national government on the issue.

“It would be really nice if either the city council or the government could look at our situation and help us,” she said.

“We’re a small business, we’re in the heart of the city centre, we add to tourism here and bring visitors in.

“It would be nice to have a little bit of support. So far we’ve had none.”