A mother from Kent walked out of PizzaExpress in tears, with two young children in tow, after a staff member told her to feed her baby in the shopping centre toilets.

Charlotte Bonner, 27, from Sevenoaks, was enjoying a rare family meal at the restaurant in Lakeside Shopping Centre, Essex, when 8-week old Robbie started crying. Charlotte’s family had been sat at a table next to the large windows looking out at the busy area by the lifts.

The restaurant was quiet with lots of spare seats and Charlotte asked an employee to sit in an empty booth at the back to feed her baby, but her polite request was refused.

She told Kent Current: “The waitress looked confused when I asked to move away from the window and said, ‘Can’t you just go to the toilets?’ I couldn’t believe that anyone would expect a mother to sit in a toilet to feed their baby.”

Stunned, Charlotte began to cry while her husband Lee requested to speak to the manager.

“The manager came over to us and said that Charlotte wasn’t allowed to move elsewhere to breastfeed because the tables had been cleaned and that we should have told them before ordering. I just didn’t know what to say.”

Ashamed and embarrassed, Charlotte and Lee paid for their half-eaten meal and left.

“My eldest son [Jack, 4] was still hungry because he just didn’t have time to eat. With two young children and Lee working, it is difficult to organise a nice family day out and find somewhere that everyone will enjoy eating.

“We’ve always thought of PizzaExpress as a family place and never had an issue. Everywhere else has welcomed me breastfeeding.”

Despite Charlotte’s ordeal, Lakeside prides themselves as a breastfeeding friendly place.

They said: “Lakeside is a breastfeeding friendly environment and we welcome all mothers to feed their children anywhere they are comfortable to in the centre. For those who want more privacy, we have a dedicated parent and baby room with an area to feel your child in a private or quieter setting.”

According to the Equality Act 2010, treating a woman unfavourably because she is breastfeeding a child of any age is considered sex discrimination. This applies to any business or premise providing services to the public. The discrimination includes refusing to provide a service, providing a lower standard of service or providing a service on different terms.

This vital protection for mothers is not well-known, even within breastfeeding communities with many women and businesses are completely unaware it even exits.

Tannice Hemming, Keep Kent Breastfeeding Campaign Founder, called the actions of the restaurant “simply appalling” and said she wants nursing mothers to know that there is protection.

Keep Kent Breastfeeding said: “Making women feel like they are doing something wrong by feeding their child is simply unacceptable. Breastfeeding rates in the UK are so low and no wonder when women are made to feel like they are doing something lewd or inappropriate.

“Sadly, even though it’s important that we know about these kind of incidents, the more they are reported the more it feeds into the idea that women will be criticised for public breastfeeding. This makes more and more new mothers concerned they will face such negativity for the simple act of feeding their baby.”

After Kent Current made PizzaExpress aware of the situation they offered Charlotte an apology.

“At PizzaExpress we pride ourselves on creating a comfortable environment for all our customers and should mothers wish to breastfeed, they are welcome to do so. We are sorry to hear about the customer’s recent visit and we are looking into the matter as the experience does not reflect our values.”