Is it illegal to NOT serve tap water in a restaurant??

I think it is, friends think it is, but I can’t seem to find any tight legislation on the issue….

So, can anyone link me to a website/document that says it is/isn’t illegal to NOT serve free tap water in public joints??

Lame request i know, but hey…

DrP

bars not resraurants iirc

I think that any retailer can refuse service? Most just supply free tap water as a good will gesture is how I have always understood it. I believe bars and clubs do have to give you free tap water

You beat me too it Thomthumb, isn’t it past your bedtime?!

The Guardian did an article about it last year. IIRC a legal grey area.

I know in a really posh restaurant in leith they refused my friend tapwater.

Link to the Guardian story

The thing is, water costs money so why should it be free?, we give it out for free to customers who ask at the pub I work in, but when you get a group of ramblers come in asking if they can all fill there bottles, when they have parked there cars in your car park and then ate there packed lunches in your beer garden whilst using you toilets all without putting any money over the bar, why do they seem confused when you say no.

I have never been refused tap water in a restaurant. I always ask for a jug as I order my meal. If I was refused I would walk out there and then.

Once in a rather posh restaurant I asked for water – “certainly sir, Edinburgh or bottled” was the answer which I thought rather good.

(in the guardian story) Sue Penniston, spokeswoman for the Drinking Water Inspectorate, part of Defra, says: “There are a lot of misconceptions, some of which arose out of the Leah Betts case. In the wake of her death, a lot of large premises had clauses put into their licensing agreements which obliged them to offer tap water free of charge.

8O

I thought she was shown to have died of water intoxication ??

Luke – you should give em free water but clamp their cars. (I don’t always buy a meal at a pub when I use their car park but I do make a point of at least taking a dump there. You’ve got to put something back; that’s what my old mum says :wink: )

I’ve not got a problem with customers having tap water if they’ve already spent money in the pub, its the ones that only come in for the free water, that annoy me.
Clamping cars would be a good idea but we could use 20-30 clamps some days what with ramblers and the local football teams using our car park.
At least the bikers tend to ask first or at least spend some money after.

“I thought she was shown to have died of water intoxication ??”

Yes, that woman has it backwards. Betts died of water poisoning at home, not at licensed premises from a lack of water. What is she is confusing it with is something that happened at the same time: people kept going to clubs, taking E, not being able to drink water and keeling over on the dancefloor. I think it was (some) local councils that made it a condition of club/alcohol licenses that they had to give free water to the punters.

no one ever died from heat exhaustion and taking E in a club, quite a few died from drinking too much.

typical ramblers, turn up with packed lunches, flasks and muddy boots, buy mebbe a half pint between ’em then expect water as well. Cheek. And on top of that they want the whole bluudy countryside to themselves as well. Set the wolverines on them, I say!

no one ever died from heat exhaustion and taking E in a club, quite a few died from drinking too much.

Unfortunately, that’s not true. It’s a (relatively) easily managed risk but certainly quite a few people have died from heatstroke after taking E.

There is tons of information out there on E + hyperthermia e.g. “The most common cause of MDMA-related death, however, is due to the drug inducing a rise in body temperature to the point of hyperthermia (overheating)” http://www.urban75.com/Drugs/e_guide.html , which is about as far from hysterical frothing Daily Mail moral panic as you can get.

obviously it’s the ramblers on E that are by far the worst

I thought all this stemmed from an old english law about not refusing a traveller a drink. However, I don’t think it specified it had to be water (but why would you give away your beer?).

Because it tastes awful?

I’ve heard it’s illegal not to provide free tap water in a reataurant in Scotland but not in England..

Pub i served in used to serve Loch Winnoch by the jug for free. If someone annoyed the staff we charged for it, well you gotta clean glasses pay for the lemon/ice cubes somehow.

no one ever died from heat exhaustion and taking E in a club, quite a few died from drinking too much.

No its the mental disorders/depression in later life that gets them in the end. A delayed early-death in alot of cases I bet.

Why wouldnt they give you tap water? FFS, you hardly go into a restaurant to quench just your thirst?!!!

No its the mental disorders/depression in later life that gets them in the end. A delayed early-death in alot of cases I bet.

Sigh. Got any evidence for that?

So artificially chemically heightening euphoria isnt a bad thing? :|

It’s weird thought you go to France and the first thing they do is place a large jug of free tap water on the table.

konabunny – Member

No its the mental disorders/depression in later life that gets them in the end. A delayed early-death in alot of cases I bet.

Sigh. Got any evidence for that?

I believe there is some evidence oof high eccys use leading to depression in later years but no proof as yet. As with cannabis psychosis it is very hard to show a link and most drug users use multiple drugs. Is it a cause, a trigger or coincidence?

I think those are all fair questions and it’s easy to believe that heavy/ excessive/ abusive use of any substance from crack to corn will cause you problems sooner or later.

But that’s a million miles away from saying “gore blimey ecstasy gives you mental health problems and causes delayed early death” (whatever that is supposed to mean)…

Totally based on personal and anecdotal evidence, I believe that significant ecstasy use correlates with consequent problems with depression and memory.

jojoA1 – Member

Totally based on personal and anecdotal evidence, I believe that significant ecstasy use correlates with consequent problems with depression and memory.

Isn’t that just old age?

Significant and heavy usage of any drug leads to problems.

“Isn’t that just old age?”

Don’t think so, I was too young when it all started :)

It’s karma, you can’t be that happy and feel that good for that long without a payback sometime in your life…

you can’t be that happy and feel that good for that long without a payback sometime in your life…

S’funny, it doesn’t seem to ever work out the other way around for truly miserable people. I don’t think philosophically what you say is true.

Medically, I suppose it all just comes back to what you (one) mean by “significant”. If significant means “enough to bugger you up” then you just have a circular statement (if you take enough E to bugger you up then it will bugger you up).

delayed early-death

8O