Pub chain tells customers with children: 'You can only have TWO drinks, then you have to leave'

Adults with children are allowed only two alcoholic drinks with a meal to limit their stay at a chain of pubs, the company confirmed today.

A spokesman for JD Wetherspoon, which has 683 pubs throughout the UK, said adults with children could be refused drinks, including non-alcoholic drinks, as a result.

Eddie Gershon, spokesman for JD Wetherspoon, said today: "We are not in any way a children's pub with an activity centre. It is not a wonderful day out for children spending hours in the pub.

"Once they have finished the meal with the child, we would expect them to leave soon after. We are comfortable with children coming into the pub as it is commercially viable.

"We would let an adult order an alcoholic drink with a meal and another drink after that but we don't want children there bored while adults drink. Coffee is more welcome than ordering alcohol but not ordering three or four coffees.

"We are not uncomfortable with children being on the premises. We would not want a situation where the child is there for two or three hours."

Customer Stephen Gandy told the BBC that they were not allowed more than two alcoholic drinks each because they were with a child, even though the child's mother was drinking only water when they visited a Wetherspoon pub in Wallasey on Merseyside for a meal with family and friends.

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Mr Gandy said they were told the restriction was to stop "child cruelty".

But JD Wetherspoon's spokesman denied today that this was the case and said the pubs did not have the activity facilities for children.

Mr Gershon said: "It is up to the discretion of managers and staff but we wouldn't want the children sitting there bored.

"This is not a moral approach. From our point of view, this is nothing new.

"We never had children in pubs until around five years ago."