A woman has claimed that she was resorted to tears after a popular social club cancelled her grandson's christening which was due to occur on July 11.
The club reported they would have to cancel the event due to a Covid-19 outbreak, however, the family were outraged to then discover fans were allowed into the same club later that day to watch the Euro 2020 final.
Lyndsey Henderson reported that she spent an estimated £1,000 on the party for six-month old child Carter, only to then be given a day's notice that The Jubilee Club bash in Newcastle had been scrapped.
According to Chronicle Live, Lyndsey spent a very stressful night before the christening trying to book a new venue.
While the event was then moved to a location in East Howdon, she claims that hundreds of pounds worth of food was then wasted as half the guests failed to show up.
After being notified of the cancellation on Saturday afternoon, she expected the venue to be shut all weekend. However, to Lyndsey's astonishment, on Sunday night the club was packed full of beer-swigging footy fans watching England lose to Italy.
"I was in absolute tears," said Lyndsey, 43, who thinks the venue wanted more fans in through the day for the footy.
"On this occasion safety hasn’t been thought off, but instead money."
However the club has fired back, saying Lyndsey was initially OK with the cancellation - until her friends became involved via Facebook.
And they insisted that the decision to cancel was purely down to safety - especially given that the club is large enough to have staged the fans and the christening.
However, addressing the cancellation, Lyndsey added: "I was just distraught, having paid all of this money for a christening that wasn't going ahead because I had nowhere for the guests.
"I had to pay taxis to drive me around all the pubs I could think of just to get a room at short notice."
She claims she paid a £30 deposit to secure the venue in March, months before England's march towards the final
Aware the match was on in the evening, she'd asked management earlier in the week if they needed the group out by a certain time. However, she was told no - with the family even invited to stay for the match.
However, at around 1pm on Saturday, the venue delivered the devastating news it would need to cancel after staff had informed management that they'd tested positive that morning
Messages seen show officials had apologised to Lyndsey, while admitting the football was also at risk if the cleaning wasn't carried out on time.
"We have had to order the whole hall to be fogged tomorrow. This means that that the room will not be able to be in use," stated one message.
"We sincerely apologise for this however it is completely out of control."
However an increasingly heated exchanged followed between the sides. Lyndsey, who works in healthcare at the Freeman Hospital, believes a thorough deep clean could force the venue to close for up to 48 hours.
However the venue claimed it "doesn't make any sense" to cancel without a reasonable cause, while asking Lyndsey if she would be happy having almost 100 guests in a space that had potentially been contaminated with a potentially deadly virus.
And addressing her complaint, a spokesperson for the venue stated to Chronicle Live that enough time was left between the clean to safely reopen for the match.
"In short, we were alerted on the Saturday morning of a member of staff becoming positive. This member of staff had been working in the function room a few hours midweek decorating it and preparing," they said.
"As soon as it was known we took the decision to cancel the christening so that we could bring in a cleaning team. We explained this to the customer whose initial response was understanding. The cleaners didn't get in until around 2pm-ish on the Sunday, which did leave time for us to re-open for the 8pm football."
And he maintains that Lyndsey had initially accepted the closure - until her friends became involved.
"It wasn't until Miss Henderson's friends took to social media that she then became frustrated," they added.
"I tried to explain that I couldn't allow guests, especially young kids, to be put at risk and that I'm surprised anyone would, but this seemed to fall on deaf ears.
"What am I supposed to do, allow the christening to go ahead knowing that the room is a risk? As I explained to Miss Henderson, cancelling her christening was of absolute no benefit to myself, it's a large room that could easily sit the christening guests and football fans.
"We did it because we aim to be a responsible operator."
However, Newcastle City Council is now involved after Lyndsey lodged a complaint.
A council spokesperson said: “We are not aware of an outbreak at this premises but will investigate the report and ensure that the premises have a risk management plan in place to manage cases, contacts and cleaning procedures.”
The venue claimed the authority has yet to make contact.
"We are confident that we have all Covid risk policies in place, along with QR Code (and) track and trace," added the spokesperson.
"We've never had issues with the authorities before, and being honest I cannot believe that this customer has taken it this far."
However, for Lyndsey, this isn't the end of it.
"It caused me a hell of a lot of stress and upset," she added.
"I want compensation for all the stress, and the money I've lost on the buffet. I'd paid £500 for the buffet as they'd said I could have 96 people in the room, and it all went to waste."
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