Welsh speaking cafe row
A councillor has hit out a customer for saying he didn't feel welcome in a Welsh cafe because locals were speaking Welsh.
Comments have been made on TripAdvisor by a customer at Caffi Alys in Machynlleth, who said his visit was the first time he was not made to feel welcome.
He said in his comments that he felt staff were prejudiced against English people, claiming a Welsh speaking customer got the full attention of staff and he did not.
A number of people have hit out at the comments, including councillor Elwyn Vaughan who said 'enough was enough.
He said: "We live in a bilingual community with a proud long history thorough the medium of Welsh. It’s the home of Owain Glyndwr’s Parliament, of poets and authors, of a cross roads that joins Gwynedd and old Dyfed. It’s a natural Welsh speaking area.
“It's empty vessels that think that a monolingual imperialistic language is the norm. Everyone should have access to full bilingual education and adults given easy access to learn Welsh.
"Let's make the most of what makes this area unique and different to the rest of the world or do we want a boring homogeneous magnolia area.
“It’s our USP, unique selling point, harness it, enjoy it.”
The review was left by a man called Simon P, who moved to Dolgellau from England.
The cafe owner, Gail Jenkins, also hit back and said all his staff are very friendly, and on that particular day there were lots of Welsh speakers in the cafe.
She added: "As a Welsh speaker, you get used to these kind of things.
“It is the kind of place where a lot of locals come in, so we do talk to each other in Welsh.
“Maybe he felt I was not giving him as much attention as I could have, but all my staff are very friendly, so to say that my staff were rude and unwelcoming is not true.
“On Saturday we were having a book festival, it was a bilingual event, but there were lots of Welsh people in on that particular day."
She also said she was branded as racist for posting a job application online.
She added: "It is not the first time I have had this kind of attention.
“A few months ago I advertised for staff and specifically for Welsh speaking people, but I received a lot of backlash, with a lot of people calling me racist.
“It’s totally ridiculous, it’s quite laughable really.”
