Health and safety chiefs have been landed in hot water by banning hot drinks... from coffee mornings. For seven years parents have drunk tea and coffee and dunked biscuits as their kids played at Mill Hill Children's Centre, Waterlooville, Hampshire. But now the mothers and fathers will have to catch up over glasses of water after the centre decided hot drinks posed too much of a threat to toddlers.

Karen Griffin, 29, from Portsmouth, is one of 20 parents who attend the coffee mornings, with her seven-month-old son Jacob. The 29-year-old said: 'I think it's absurd. A lot of us mums enjoy a gossip over a cup of coffee. It just won't be the same. 'We have to pay £1 pound a time to go. If we are not getting tea and coffee I don't think we should have to pay for it.'Caroline Poole, 27, from  nearby Gosport brings son Matthew, one, along every week.

She said: 'I don't see what the big deal is. They are going way over the top. 'Everyone drinks coffee at home or in the car. What's the difference?'Centre co-ordinator Penny Bovey justified the ban and said: 'We feel this is a sensible way of keeping children safe. 'Groups are only run for approximately one and a half hours and cold drinks are available. 'Groups where children are not mobile or in a creche will still be able to have hot drinks.'