RESTAURANT bosses have apologised after a blundering member of staff told a charity for the blind that guide dogs were banned.

Management at Kuti’s Brasserie say that they will be investigating the matter and making sure that staff at the Southampton eatery do everything they can to accommodate disabled diners.

After Southampton Society for the Blind was snubbed, the Daily Echo contacted the restaurant and was told by a waiter that guide dogs were not allowed.

Co-owner Kamal Miah said that he would be apologising to the charity, sending down a slap-up takeaway to its offices and giving its members and guide dogs the full red carpet treatment if they come to the restaurant in future.

He said: “We certainly do not have a policy of banning guide dogs and we would not survive long as a business if we did.

“We are proud of our food and our restaurant and want to make all of our customers feel special and important, and we wouldn’t be doing that by turning away blind people.

“I’m not surprised the charity are angry – I would be. This is a misunderstanding made by a few members of staff and it is completely unacceptable.”

He went on to say that in the past some customers had taken exception to the dogs and complained, and that some had even walked out.

Since these incidents the company has made an effort to place diners with guide dogs in seats where the animal would not be visible, but Mr Miah insisted that blind people should never be refused entry.

The charity had been planning on having its Christmas dinner at the restaurant but after being told that the guide dog would have to wait outside, they booked at Pizza Express instead.

Tom McInulty, trustee of the society, said that he has taken his dog Brunel on planes, to the office and to the theatre and was horrified to be told that he couldn’t take it to a local restaurant.

He said: “Everyone was really looking forward to the Christmas meal and they have had to cancel because of me and my dog.

“It is deeply humiliating to be singled out in this way and it shouldn’t be happening.

“My dog is a part of me and without it I wouldn’t be able to do most of the things I do. This has made me feel angry and like a secondclass citizen.”

Tom is a group support manager for the Macular Disease Society and looks after more than 100 self-help groups for people with eye problems.

He said that in his experience, restaurants and taxi firms in Southampton are among the worst when it comes to breaking the law in relation to blind people – although he added that some are excellent.

Fines of up to £1,000

THE Daily Echo contacted a number of restaurants around the city at random and found that while most allowed guide dogs, a few claimed that they were unable to let them in for health and safety reasons, despite the Disability Discrimination Act.

However, Southampton City Council’s environmental health department, the Royal National Institute for the Blind and Southampton Society for the Blind all confirmed that restaurants have to admit guide dogs and that they are exempt from the usual health and safety rules.

A Royal National Institute for the Blind spokesman said: “I can be very clear about this – any restaurant that refuses to admit an assisting dog, in this case a guide dog, is breaking the law.

“Restaurants that flout the law in this way need to be punished.

“In addition to being illegal it is abhorrent and utterly unacceptable.

Restaurant owners need to realise how hurtful and harmful they are being.”

He went on to say that the group regularly fights such cases and has seen restaurant owners fined up to £1,000. In one case a judge felt so strongly that he imposed an injunction on one restaurant, which means that the owners could face a prison sentence for a second offence.