Police were called to a three-year-old boy’s birthday party at a play centre because his parents lit the candles on his cake in violation of health and safety regulations, it was claimed today.
Natasha Bent, mother of Oscar Barlow, wanted to light the candles during a party when staff intervened and told her to stop.
An employee at Rumble Tumble in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, told Mrs Bent that, due to health and safety rules, the candles had to be 'supervised' and could only be lit in a 'special area'.
The family then took the cake outside into the car park and lit the candles there while staff called police, according to Miss Bent.
The 27-year-old said: 'When we were there we brought in Oscar’s birthday cake from the car, but just as we were going to light the candles they told us we couldn’t.
'All we wanted to do was sing happy birthday and have Oscar blow out the candles.
'We just tried to reason with a staff member, but she said we were bullying her and told us to leave, saying she was going to call the police.
'In the end we went outside and lit the candles in the car park.
'Oscar and the other children started crying when the police turned up.
Police arrived within half-an-hour of the call just before 6pm on Thursday.
Miss Bent, of Pitshill, Staffordshire, insisted that neither she nor her family were aggressive to the play centre staff, but that they were frustrated by the health and safety policy.
Her Bent’s partner David Meir, 32, said: 'When the police officer told us the staff member had accused us of intimidating her, I just laughed.
'We weren’t acting aggressively. I had my two sons with me so there’s no way I’d do that in front of them.'
Miss Bent added: 'How on earth would a child get injured by singing Happy Birthday?
'It was a bad way for a three-year-old child to experience a birthday. It’s a special occasion and his first one understanding what a birthday is.
II love my son with all my heart and didn’t want other children to have their birthday ruined.'
Rumble Tumble did not respond to requests to comment.
A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: 'Officers established the dispute was over the level of service received and advice was given to all involved.'
Health and safety birthday to you!
Health and safety birthday to you!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Health and safety birthday to you!
Please tell me the police arrested imbecile who called them....
Or at least slapped them?
Or at least slapped them?
Re: Health and safety birthday to you!
One less thing to do in England...
Re: Health and safety birthday to you!
Take a simple concept ... fuck it up.
There are a lot of good things to be said about OH & S laws. They prevent pointless accidents and fatalities. Then there are the "jobsworths" that rate all risk factors as critical, over think the complexity of the task at hand and fuck with everyone.
The worst thing that was likely to happen might have been a minor burn to a child from touching the recently blown out candle. I call those accidents 'life lessons'.
You can't legislate out of existence things that people will learn from.
There are a lot of good things to be said about OH & S laws. They prevent pointless accidents and fatalities. Then there are the "jobsworths" that rate all risk factors as critical, over think the complexity of the task at hand and fuck with everyone.
The worst thing that was likely to happen might have been a minor burn to a child from touching the recently blown out candle. I call those accidents 'life lessons'.
You can't legislate out of existence things that people will learn from.
Bah!
