Restaurant Demand £4 From Family Of Disabled Boy, 4, For Wheelchair Space
GRAN Carol Milne splashed out on a weekend caravan break at a holiday park as a treat for her family.
She wanted to spoil grandchildren Ben, six, and four-year-old Max who is severely disabled, confined to a wheelchair and fed through a tube.
But she was horrified when a restaurant at Haggerston Castle demanded a £4 payment to have Max on the premises as he would not be eating.
Furious Carol, 54, said: “Max can’t eat as he can’t swallow. He doesn’t take anything by mouth. He is fed through a PEG, a tube in his stomach. He can’t sit up on his own and can’t walk or talk.
“We did explain this to the restaurant when we phoned to book, but they insisted that even if he couldn’t eat, we would still be charged for wheelchair space.”
Carol, of Alloa, travelled to the park near Berwick-upon-Tweed last weekend with daughter Kari, 32, her partner Gordon Taylor and the boys.
She complained directly to the management at the park and also to the restaurant, The Royal Garden.
Carol, a nurse, said: “The restaurant referred me to the terms and conditions printed on their menu. I demanded to see the manager but he wouldn’t speak to me.
“I couldn’t believe it. It ruined our weekend.”
I got on to Haven, who own the park in Northumberland, and they quickly apologised and offered the family a free break.
Haven said: “We were appalled to learn of your reader’s experience at Haggerston Castle.
“The Chinese restaurant is run as a separate business but located on our park.
“This is totally unacceptable and we will be speaking to the manager to ensure that this does not happen again. We apologise unreservedly to Carol and her family and will be offering her another break.”
Same Difference 
The thing is there are a lot of idiots out there who can’t/won’t make a decision based on what they see before their eyes. We know this because every day in the paper there’s a story about some nugget who drove into a lake because his sat-nav ‘told him to’.
If it says £4.00 in the t’s and c’s then £4 it shall be and nothing will change that.
I’ll give you an example.
Recently I went for a haircut. Being folically challenged my local Teasy-Weasy does nothing more than your average Austrailian Sheep Shearing chamption. One up the back, one each side and one over the top. The whole process last less than two minutes and costs me a fiver.
However, this day my barber was closed so I ventured into the world of ‘hairdressing’. Y’know the places you see on the telly that offer you a cup of tea and have maagzines on the table – that sort of stuff.
‘We need to wash your hair’ the girl said.
‘I don’t think that’ll be necessary’ I replied ‘The majority of it will be on the floor by the end.’
‘But we need to wash your hair’ she insisted.
‘Why?’
‘Because we wash your hair before cutting it.’
‘Yeah I know that, but all I want is a number two all over. Feel free to bag it and style it anyway you like after I’ve gone but I’m in a rush so if you could just get the clippers out….?’
Sadly she was in full ‘computer says ‘no” mode.
And so I left. Greying locks flowing in the wind. Unwashed and uncut.
If the story about the wheelchair £4.00 ‘corkage’ charge wasn’t so ridiculous it would be hilarious. What kind of robot sees someone in this lad’s situation and maintains the trajectory that insists on collecting the money? And FOUR POUNDS too? Where did that come from? What does £4.00 get you?
Like I say people are idiots but the worst thing is we enable these idiots by giving them badges and titles like ‘manager’ when in any other point in human history they would be starving to death in the gutter. Unemployable no-marks in the passing of time with nothing more than a list of rules and regulations that they could read to themselves.
One of my favourite quotes comes from Sir Douglas Bader. He said.
“Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men’
Younger readers may not know who Douglas Bader was. He was this disabled guy from the olden days.
I’m sure as hell no-one EVER charged to charge him £4.00 to sit ANYWHERE!
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