'Basil Fawlty' Motel Bans An Entire Town

raveydavey · 'Basil Fawlty' Motel Bans An Entire Town

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/200904...el-bans-an-entire-to-870a197.html

A motel in New Zealand, which is run by a man nicknamed Basil Fawlty, has taken the unusual step of banning an entire town, including its MP.
Owner Steve Donnelly and manager Malcolm Glen said they made the decision after becoming fed up with the rowdy behaviour of sports teams from Wainuiomata.

All 17,000 people from the town have now been banned indefinitely from the Supreme Motor Lodge in Palmerston North.

Australian Donnelly said: "Having had about 100 people from there over the last couple of years and maybe one that we liked... it is not worth it."

"We would do the same to anyone who causes us that level of stress," he told the Dominion Post newspaper.

Scottish manager Glen is known as Basil Fawlty after the highly strung John Cleese TV character.

When Wainuiomata's member of parliament and former cabinet minister Trevor Mallard tested the ban by trying to book in, Mr Glen gave him his marching orders.

He told the New Zealand legislator: "As a Scotsman I don't have a vote, it doesn't matter to me, you're banned."

Mike Boese, who owns Parklands Motel in Wainuiomata, said the decision to ban the town was "a bit over the top".

He told Sky News Online: "We just sit back and laugh. Maybe he got off on the wrong foot with these people. All he had to do was stop taking sports groups.

"It's his property. He had the right to do it. But we take it on the chin."

Wainuiomata is near the capital Wellington in the country's North Island.