A 31 year-old man has revealed that he had a near miss in a local Wetherspoons recently. A piece of the pub's ceiling landed on to his table as he returned to his table from the bar.
Sam Ireton left his table to order a drink in the Commercial Rooms when the ceiling collapsed onto his table. Sam, who works as a mental health support worker and also part-time for Deliveroo, had popped into the pub for a quick lunchtime drink last week.
He said: "I was doing a delivery job, so popped into the pub, put my bag down at a table a few metres away from the bar and went over to order a drink. As I was about to walk back to the table, a big bit of masonry fell from the ceiling onto the table and fully smashed it in two.
"It would have easily killed me if I had just been half a minute sooner - it was completely traumatic."
Despite that, he said that the staff at the pub were "really good" and cleared and shut the pub instantly as they filed an instant report of the incident. Sam said: "I was totally in shock and I sat there whilst they took my details."
Following the distressing incident, Sam returned to work and has confirmed he is looking into if he is entitled to anything following on from the incident.
Wetherspoons said: "On behalf of J D Wetherspoon plc, we sincerely apologise to Mr Ireton and the other customers who were visiting the pub on 17 June, when this incident took place. We were pleased that fortunately no one was hurt.
"Experts conduct regular inspections of all fibrous plaster ceilings which are located in some Wetherspoon pubs. The last ceiling inspection at the Commercial Rooms took place in February this year, when the experts found no cause for concern.
"Immediately following the incident, the pub was evacuated and the area was cordoned off pending a further full inspection by experts, which took place this week. The experts conducted some minor repairs but found that the ceiling was otherwise structurally sound so the area has been reopened.
"Wetherspoon treats the health and safety of its staff and customers with the utmost importance and every effort is made to ensure that our pubs are safe places."
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