Pub complains of dust from silt-disposal tractors

John and Norma King said they worried about the impact the dust was having on trade

The owners of a pub said their customers were being choked with dust after South Staffs Water started spreading silt.

John and Norma King, from The Bull's Head Inn at Chelmarsh in Shropshire, said it was frustrating customers were unable to sit outdoors in the sunshine.

The company apologised and said it used local farming contractors to spread the silt on fields across the road from the pub twice a year.

It said it had stopped the work once it realised suppression measures were not able to control the dust, which was created by tractors entering the field.

Mr King said customers had been "choking" and a vegetable delivery van had seen his produce covered in the dust.

With rural pubs facing problems with rising costs, he said: "It just makes life more and more difficult when you have to deal with this as well."

The couple have been running the pub for 19 years and Mrs King said: "There's people with little children who like to run around in the garden and they're going to think twice."

She said she had "to go to great depths to explain it away" to customers and some were choosing not to sit outside.

Mr King said it was hard to know the impact on pub takings, but estimated it could cost them up to £300 a day in lost trade and there was also the cost of cleaning the dust.

A fine coating of the dust is on all the pub's outdoor furniture

South Staffs Water said the silt was taken from its treatment works and spread onto company-owned fields.

It said the process was licensed by the Environment Agency, and it used three fields by the Bull's Head.

The silt improved soil fertility, it added, and there was no other way of disposing of it.

The water company explained it employed a road sweeper to remove the dust, but cancelled the work when it became aware suppression measures had become ineffective because of the wind direction.