A QUIET drink turned to anger for a young family after they were ordered out of a Newton Abbot pub – because their six-week-old baby wasn't eating anything.
Jocelyn Caveney, 35, wanted to find out what Wetherspoon's town centre pub – the Richard Hopkins – was like.
So last Friday afternoon, she and her 34-year-old husband, Clive, settled to enjoy a couple of soft drinks, along with baby Anya.
But the housewife from Gothic Road, Newton Abbot was firmly told they could only stay if their child was eating something.
'I said we'd order a portion of chips if it meant we could stay,' said Mrs Caveney. They were then asked to move to a family area.
But as smoking was allowed there, Mrs Caveney didn't want baby Anya exposed to cigarettes.
'A woman asked us to leave,' Mrs Caveney said. 'She wasn't particularly nice about it either. We got up and stormed out, and we won't be coming back.
'Several friends of ours won't be going there either. It's not family friendly.
'We were just sitting there having a quiet drink.'
She went on: 'It wasn't as if the place was busy, and we didn't have children jumping all over the place, the baby was asleep in the pram.
'We thought it's a new pub, we'll go in there for a coke, trying it out, and this is what we get. People seem to hate children.'
Chris Gill, one of the managers at the Queen Street pub, said the conditions
of the children's licence meant the whole family had to be having a meal.
They hadn't been granted the sort of licence which allowed the Caveneys just to sit and have a drink
'I'd be grateful if you would print this as we have to explain it every day,' he said.
Mr Gill said he
was sorry that the Caveneys had made a complaint, but he insisted the pub had two family areas, one allowing smoking and one where it is not permitted.
But Mrs Caveney had the last word.
'I definitely asked if they had a non-smoking family area and I was told no, so someone isn't telling the truth.'