Travellers plan to sue after being banned from Butlins holiday - Somerset/Gloucestershire

From the Western Daily Press

A family of Travellers from Gloucestershire are threatening to sue Butlins after they were banned from the holiday firm's resort at Minehead.

Margaret Connors, 35, was planning on spending Christmas at one of their holiday camps with her husband and five of their six children.

But bosses have turned them away because her husband, who runs a block paving business, isn't on the electoral roll.

Mrs Connors claims they are the victims of unlawful discrimination but Butlins say they won't budge on their policy which was introduced after a series of brawls between rival travelling families.

Mrs Connors, from Hardwicke, Gloucestershire, said: "We are Travellers in the summer but we have a house in Hardwicke and we work, we pay our taxes and send our children to school like anyone else.

"I think it’s discrimination. Is my money not as good as the next person’s? The children are devastated. We went to Cancun in Mexico earlier this year and this is costing nothing like that but it’s the principle of it. We can’t even go for a holiday just down the road."

Mrs Connors, her husband and five of their children, had planned to join relatives at the resort in Minehead, Somerset, between December 23 to 28.

They hoped to take along children - Queenie Elizabeth, 12, Mary Theresa, 11, Jerry, eight, Jim, five and Dan, four months. They planned to meet Mrs Connor's sister-in-law at the park, but she has cancelled her booking in protest.

Mrs Connors added: "I have complained to Butlin’s but they won’t budge. I am not going to stop here. I am consulting a solicitor."

Butlin's introduced their electoral roll check after a huge fight broke out between rival travelling families and a Chinese family in 1997. Staff were injured and police were called in from all over Somerset to break up the brawl.

A Butlin’s spokesman said its policy on the electoral roll is clear. "It’s in our terms and conditions. It’s clearly stated that you must be on the electoral roll. It was a decision that was taken a number of years ago and it has worked very well.

"When you have a huge number of people visiting we want them all to enjoy themselves and be safe and this is one of the measures we take to ensure that. In the past we have had one or two incidents over Christmas and New Year and since we have tightened things up things have gone very smoothly.