A kind-hearted motorcyclist who drove hundreds of miles to deliver much-needed PPE was turned away from KFC drive-thru because he was on a motorcycle.

Currently on furlough from his job as an aircraft engineer at Heathrow, Basingstoke man Kevin Taylor has been volunteering his time as a dispatch rider with the Bikeshed community support team, delivering PPE to nursing homes, vulnerable people, and medical workers.

It was the afternoon of May 20, when after travelling more than 600 miles in four days, Mr Taylor decided to pop into KFC at the Basingstoke Leisure Park before he continued his journey on to Southampton for another pick-up/drop-off of equipment.

"I'd heard that KFC were open and that they'd said that the main reason for doing so was so that key workers could get something to eat," he told the Gazette.

"I thought that's me in a nutshell as my voluntary job entails delivering PPE via motorcycle to vulnerable people and care homes and also taking oxygen test kits to Covid-19 patients from the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead Heath to their homes."

In fact, Mr Taylor heard right.

As previously reported by the Gazette, KFC claimed that one of its main reasons for reopening the drive-thru was "to give a little more choice to those who are already on the road for essential journeys or on their way home from difficult shifts.”

So, thinking he would have no problem getting some food, he moved into the queue.

Basingstoke Gazette:

Soon enough he had made it near the front of the line where he placed his order.

But that's when it all turned sour.

"I was beckoned forward by the people in the booth that takes your money, only to be told that I couldn’t have anything as I was not in a car," Mr Taylor added.

"I was then told that if I wanted a meal, I’d have to have it as a takeaway order. Not a lot of good for a dispatch rider on the move.

"All in all, the attitude of the KFC workers was that they cared not a jot that I was a key worker and actually in the process of carrying out a job to help the sick."

Thankfully, he was able to pop to his home in Old Worting Road quickly where he grabbed a handful of nuts to tide him over until teatime.

"I was made to feel like a second-class citizen by KFC just because I was delivering PPE on a motorbike and not in a car," he finished.

A KFC spokeswoman said: “We want to make sure we’re reopening our drive thrus as responsibly as possible.

"It’s clear from the demand that the people of Basingstoke have missed their KFC – so we’re sorry this guest didn’t have the reunion with us they’d have wanted. We’d love to speak to him to make things right.”