Wheelchair user 'left in tears' after 'awful' visit to Leicester restaurant

Ben Carr
·3-min read
Sally Donald-Deacon said her experience at the restaurant was 'awful'
-Credit: (Image: Google / Getty)


A wheelchair user said she was “left in tears” after she was unable to sit with friends during a visit to a Leicester restaurant. Sally Donald-Deacon was due to have a meal at Feast India, in Melton Road, but when she arrived, she found that the group was seated in a raised section of the restaurant.

Ms Donald-Deacon claimed that the organiser of the party had checked with Feast India at the point of booking that the venue was accessible. She also claimed that when the organiser arrived at the venue on the day of the event, they checked again that it would be able to accommodate a wheelchair user, and was told yes on both occasions.

However, Ms Donald-Deacon claimed that when she arrived, she was told that the lift was broken, and that staff could instead put together a “makeshift ramp” to help her access the table. But as they did not want to do that, they left. Feast India told LeicestershireLive that it was conducting an investigation into what had happened.

READ MORE: Controversial 72-seater Leicestershire pizzeria withdrawn amid scores of objections

Ms Donald-Deacon, an administrator at a GP surgery, said: “I actually left in tears.

"We arrived at about 10 past five. I was there with my husband and my son. We went to [look for the group], to find that they were up two steps in a raised bit. The waiter said, 'The lift is broken', and every person we spoke to said that the lift was broken.

“The organiser [had] reiterated [on arrival] that there was a wheelchair user in the party - until I got there, and suddenly [the staff said] they 'weren’t told' there would be a wheelchair user, [and that] I could be seated somewhere else in the restaurant.

"But I had gone to a party of 20 people. Why should I be separated?”

Referring to the restaurant's alleged offer to create a “makeshift ramp”, the 56-year-old said: “The mind boggles about how they would make this ramp. I said, 'The angle is two steps, how good is your public liability insurance?'."

Ms Donald-Deacon said the experience had been "awful". "It is against the law," she said. "We did everything properly and they failed completely.

“They left a woman in a wheelchair, who was literally quoting the Disability [Discrimination] Act, having a meal with her friends, some of whom I hadn’t seen in years, and I had to go home because they couldn’t accommodate what they promised. Why should we rearrange when we booked for that specific date?”

“Most of them wanted to walk out of principle,” Ms Donald-Deacon said. “But I wouldn’t let them. Why should we all lose out?

“To make someone feel so discriminated against is wrong, and if this stops someone else down the line, if they ring up and say, 'We have a wheelchair user', no one else feels like I felt.”

A spokesperson for Feast India told LeicestershireLive: “We are aware of the customer's concerns and are currently conducting a full investigation into the concerns raised. We pride ourselves on giving the best customer service to all our customers.

“Any complaints we receive are taken seriously and investigated in depth, as each and every customer is important to us. It would be inappropriate to make any comments while the investigation is taking place.

“We will be contacting the customer once we have completed the investigation.”

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