A Highland family-of-seven has claimed they were told to separate into two groups while dining in a Moray restaurant due to the “rule of six” coronavirus guidelines.
John Man, his wife Lia and their five children, who range from five to 13, tried to eat together at the Brewer’s Fayre in Elgin while visiting the town on holiday.
But when the group arrived through the door they were asked split up.
Brewer’s Fayre said the family was asked to separate because the largest available table in the restaurant only had six seats.
However, Mr Man believes a request was made for the party to sit at “opposite ends of the restaurant” to comply with the six-person group size limit to restrict the spread of Covid-19.
Scottish rules do not include children under 12, but in England all family members are counted.
Mr Man, who runs a restaurant himself, said: “It was quite amazing to be asked to follow English laws in a Scottish establishment.
“We were all hungry though after a long day and I didn’t want to stand there arguing so we just accepted it – it was actually quite funny having to sit at opposite ends of the empty restaurant.
“We stopped somewhere else earlier in the day and didn’t have a problem so I don’t know why it was an issue there.”
Brewer’s Fayre explained extra safety measures in the Elgin restaurant had restricted the table sizes available.
A spokeswoman said: “All of our restaurant teams are asked to follow the appropriate local government guidance for their area, and we would like to extend our apologies for the confusion caused in this instance.
“As per the current guidance, our team are allowed to seat family household groups that meet the current local guidance, together, as long as our restaurant capacity and layout is able to accommodate this.
“However in this instance our team were unable to seat them on one table due to the current additional safety measures in place and were required to seat them separately, we appreciate this may not have been explained adequately and apologise for this.”
