Hive Beach Café has stopped its discounted meals for the over 55s after staff were verbally abused.

The silver surfer meals were offered as a deal on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Burton Bradstock cafe, but customers were regularly being rude to staff and in some cases reducing them to tears.

Maisy Atrill of the Hive Beach Café said: "There just seems to be a massive increase in staff abuse on the days silver surfers were happening. Unfortunately, we've had a few members of staff get upset about it, we've had a few tears and it's just not on.

"We had badges in the summer because people were getting a bit rude with the staff, we had badges that said 'respect us and we'll respect you'. You feel like you shouldn't have to do that but you do."

The move to cancel the silver surfers was made on social media, which received a lot of support, but some comments asking why they won't ban those being rude rather than completely cancel.

Maisy added: "In that situation it's a lot easier said than done. When these people are doing what they are doing, they don't like to hear any other answer to it and they are not going to stop being rude. If you ask them to leave, they are just going to get 10 times worse and sometimes feel like they can't do that because it's going to make the situation worse.

"It has gotten to the point it is happening every Tuesday and Thursday and it got too much so we stopped it, which is a shame for the lovely people, but our staff come first.

It's a shame because it is nice to give our locals a bit of a discount. It's the 10 per cent that ruin it for everyone else, but that 10 per cent do leave an impression and it ruins the staffs' day."

Owner Steve Attrill said: "I 100 per cent support the staff in this zero tolerance throughout the company.

"Hospitality has been the target throughout the pandemic, staff working under very difficult conditions. All we ask is customers to respect the staff and the staff will respect the customer."

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