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Roundhay Park's Lakeside Cafe bans pushchairs
Furious mums have vowed to boycott a popular Roundhay Park cafe after it banned pushchairs.
The Lakeside Cafe brought in the ban in February after complaints from regular customers.
From 11.30am until 2.30pm each day, mums such as Lisa Lodge, Clare Allinson and Helen McCann must leave prams and buggies in the foyer of the cafe. Lisa, 42, regularly visits the cafe next to Waterloo Lake with daughters, Mia, two, and Amber, nine months.
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She said: "I think it's discrimination towards mothers. It's quite a large cafe and I've never had any trouble with the buggy.
"It's a popular place for mums and their children to meet. Now we feel like we're not welcome."
Helen, mum of Skye, two, and Ellis, 15 months, said: "It's impossible to hold a baby in one hand, a toddler in the other and pick up a tray and walk with it."
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The sign on the cafe door says the ban was introduced after complaints from "many regular customers", but when asked by the North Leeds Post, tenant David Rogers said just "four or five" people had objected.
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He said: "We introduced the policy because of the space the pushchairs were taking up and complaints from customers who can't get around the premises as easily. We're just trying to make the cafe as nice as possible for as many people as possible."
Lisa Lodge now plans to organise a petition and write to her local MP, Fabian Hamilton (Lab, Leeds North East). She said: "They could have asked if people would mind leaving pushchairs outside during busy periods. They've gone about this completely the wrong way. A lot of mums are up in arms."
However, two customers have contacted us to support the ban, including
mum-of-two Wendy Ward. She said: "I don't need a pushchair any more but I do think they take the cafe over. The proprietor is trying to run a business and he has to think of his other customers."
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Friday 18 May 2012
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