Compensation Awarded To Dance Group

A dance group who received £85,000 compensation after being caught up in an illness outbreak at a Scarborough hotel have pleaded with tour operators to learn lessons from the incident.

Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell helped the group to claim compensation after 43 out of 46 dancers were taken ill.

The group travelled to the Clifton Hotel in Scarborough in March 2006. Despite an outbreak of illness at the hotel the week before the party was not warned and there was no information at the hotel advising guests what to do should they fall ill.

Travel lawyers from Irwin Mitchell helped the group recover a total settlement of £85,000 from English Rose Hotels Plc.

Frank Marsden and his wife Cynthia organised the trip. He said: “The hotel staff didn’t appear to take reports of illness seriously and didn’t call for a doctor when we asked. Service in the restaurant was very slow owing to the fact that hotel staff had also fallen ill.

“Both myself and my wife Cynthia were taken ill and had to see doctors after returning home. We are just delighted that the case has finally settled. We did not want them to get away with this. We should have been warned about the hotel having an illness outbreak before arriving at the hotel, and we feel let down by the lack of communication.”

Helen Cheshire of Irwin Mitchell said: “This case highlights how serious a gastric illness can be and the need for tour operators to learn lessons to prevent anything like this happening again. It is a major concern that so many guests were affected by the outbreak and even more worrying that staff dealt with it in such a dismissive manner.

“Guests staying at hotels, whether abroad or in the UK, deserve to know that their accommodation meets basic standards of hygiene and that staff have a policy in place and will take immediate action if there is any danger of their health being compromised.”