SCOOTER ROW:
A disabled woman claims she was asked to leave a city centre pub - in a dispute over her mobility scooter. Karaoke fan Angela Preston, from Hanley, says she was left ‘fuming’ when a staff member at The Tontine asked her to leave unless she moved her scooter outside.
The 58-year-old suffers with fibromyalgia and uses the scooter to go everywhere.
In response, managers at The Tontine denied telling Angela to leave and says staff offered to move Angela’s mobility scooter outside or into its beer garden as it was blocking the entrance to the pub. But Angela says she didn’t want to leave it outside for fear of it being stolen.
She says she had been in the nearby Market Tavern with her mobility scooter and had no problems.
Angela said: “My scooter was allowed inside the Market Tavern, but it wasn’t allowed inside The Tontine and I got told to leave. They said ‘sorry you have got to leave, scooters aren’t allowed in the pub’. I was gobsmacked. They didn’t ask to have a quiet word. Somebody defended me, but they said if they allowed one scooter in they would have to allow them all in. I’m really annoyed about it. I was absolutely fuming.
“Are disabled people supposed to just stay at home?”
The Tontine says the staff member did not ask Angela to leave. A spokesman for the Tontine Street boozer said: “The Market Tavern had shut and everybody came over to The Tontine and we were really busy.
“She brought the mobility scooter into the pub and left it by the front door which is a fire risk. It was hard for people to get in and out of the front door.
“All I asked her to do was leave it outside.
“It’s not a very big pub and it was causing safety issues, she wasn’t asked to leave.
“We even offered to put it in the beer garden for her, but she just didn’t want to leave it outside and she chose to leave the pub. ”Unfortunately with it being a fire exit we couldn’t have it in the pub where it was.
“It was causing issues with people getting past.
“It was purely just a safety issue, we couldn’t have it in the pub by the front door with it being a fire exit.”