Last updated at 15:39, Thursday, 28 August 2008

A Langholm father has expressed his disgust after being told by a restaurant that his two young sons were too tall to pay children’s prices.

Adam Hogg, 11, and brother Matthew, eight

Michael Hogg of West Street went to the restaurant in Carlisle with his two sons Adam, 5ft,  and Matthew, 4ft 7in, who are aged 11 and eight and are pupils at Langholm primary school. They were with two friends aged 10 and 11.

To celebrate Adam’s 11th birthday Mr Hogg organised to take the four boys to the Shanghai Shanghai restaurant in Botchergate and then go on to see the new Batman film.

Although the family had eaten at the restaurant on a number of times before and had paid children’s prices for the boys, this time Mr Hogg was told they were too tall and would have to pay the full price.

He said: “Every time we look at a newspaper or watch the news we find stories of discrimination, many of which appear to many to be unbelievable and go against the theory of our democratic state.

“My story is of no significance to the rest of the world but I would like to share this with you and your readers to see how many others have been discriminated against in the great City of Carlisle.

“We were shown to our table, which could have been anywhere because there were only two other families in there and as we got up to go to the buffet, the serving assistant said it would be five adults to pay for.

“Obviously, I was astounded and expressed my astonishment. Politely, I stated that there must be some mistake as the boys’ ages ranged from eight to 11.

“This conversation went on for a couple of minutes until the manager came along and said the boys were tall and therefore must pay for adult prices.

“How ridiculous but the argument was not going to be won by me so I pointed out to the boys that the money was not an issue but as a principle I refused for them to be discriminated against because of their height and if they were happy to go elsewhere we would.

“The boys were as disgusted as me so we headed off elsewhere and will not be back at this establishment again.”

Mr Hogg added: “They are in primary school so how can you class them as adults. My 11-year-old is quite tall but he’s still a child. it's not the money but the principle – kids have to be kids. There was nothing at the restaurant about ages.

“What I was told as I was leaving the restaurant was that everyone based it on height. It’s extraordinary and I’ve never come across it before. It’s not as though the boys have shot up two feet since we were last there.”

When contacted by the E&L Advertiser, restaurant manager Allen Liu said their policy was that any children under four feet 11 inches high would pay the children’s price but any child taller than that would pay the adult price for their meals.

He said that if Mr Hogg wanted to ring him he would explain the policy or if he thought the restaurant had made a mistake. The child’s age made no difference.

First published at 22:05, Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Published by http://www.eladvertiser.co.uk