Jan Leeming has hit out over a noisy child at The Pig in Bridge. Pictured here at a fete in Kent. Picture: Harold Chapman<\/p>\n
She said she was treating a friend to a birthday lunch at the venue, which dates from the 17th century, but the occasion was spoilt by the screaming child on a nearby table.<\/p>\n
She criticised the parents, who she claims did little to intervene, and suggested that if they could afford the prices at the upmarket restaurant, they could also afford a babysitter.<\/p>\n
Ms Leeming said that when she paid, she remonstrated with the staff, but said: \u201cI was treated as though I were the one at fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Ms Leeming, 84, did admit: \u201cPerhaps this shows my age.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pig at Bridge Place is part of a chain of hotels and restaurants<\/p>\n
She described one tot \u201cas a real menace\u201d, adding: \u201cOne tot was a real menace allowed to walk around and often screaming. Staff played with it!<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother tot in high chair had a screen as a pacifier. Another was okay. Parents oblivious to other clients.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pub and hotel chain has 10 venues across the country, including in the Cotswolds, the New Forest, Hampshire and Cornwall.<\/p>\n
Ms Leeming, who agreed that otherwise the venue had a \u201clovely ambience,\u201d said that: \u201cWhen paying the receptionist, she treated me as though I was out of order.<\/p>\n
Jan Leeming\u2019s tweet on The Pig at Bridge Place<\/p>\n
\u201cShe defended parents bringing children to the restaurant – there were three.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tweets by the ex-newscaster, who was also a contestant in I’m A Celebrity in 2006, have sparked a lengthy debate on social media.<\/p>\n
Many were sympathetic to the octogenarian.<\/p>\n
One poster said: \u201cI’m with you 100% Jan…parents these days just DON’T discipline their children and don’t think there is anything wrong with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another called for children under 12 to be banned \u201cfrom ale houses and restaurants\u201d.<\/p>\n
A third said: \u201cModern Britain Jan, but you are dead right to complain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another said: \u201cAs a parent, I always took misbehaving kids outside until they’d quietened down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Leeming replied by saying: \u201cDon’t think they can legally ban children. Also, it would adversely affect trade. So we just have to like it, lump it or not go again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jan Leeming\u2019s tweet on The Pig at Bridge Place<\/p>\n
Others however felt more for the parents.<\/p>\n
One response said: \u201cNice. No thought for the child then or their parents. That\u2019s where we are then eh.\u201d<\/p>\n
KentOnline could not reach The Pig\u2019s head office, Home Grown Hotels, for comment, but earlier a spokesperson for The Pig at Bridge Place, told MailOnline: \u201cEveryone is welcome at The Pig at Bridge Place – and we go to great lengths to ensure that all of our guests (young and old) are looked after by our wonderful team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former BBC newsreader has taken a pop at a Kent boutique hotel, saying that a screaming child…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[980,3519,96,59,192,191,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-406443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-canterbury","tag-eat-shop-drink","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-human-interest","tag-kent","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}