A LANDLORD says his business is suffering because of rubbish dumped outside his pub.

Kevin Banks, aged 57, has been the landlord of Sweet Green Tavern Pub, in Crook Street, Bolton, for 13 years and said he has complained to the council more than 30 times about the fly-tipping.

Since January Mr Banks claims the council have promised to clean the street four times, including the car park opposite his pub which is no longer in use and owned by the council, but have never arrived.

Mr Banks said: "It makes the pub look bad because most of the rubbish is vodka bottles and cans of beer.

"We've got a big rat problem outside the pub now because of it which doesn't look good on us but it's not our fault or our rubbish.

"But it doesn't look good when people are walking along the road near the pub and a rat runs out in front of them and the rats are getting bigger and bolder."

"Traffic in to the pub is down and people are commenting on the mess- but it's not our mess.

"I used to go out and clean it up myself but then I was told by the council to stop as I was doing someone out of a job.

"I don't even have recycling bins anymore I told the council to take them away because they never got cleaned so now I take our rubbish to the tip myself."

Mr Banks claims he was told by the council that the street would be cleaned in January, twice in February and again in March but he says no-one ever came.

A spokesman from Bolton Council said: "The car park adjacent to Sweet Green Tavern is scheduled to be cleaned on a regular basis and we arranged for it to be cleaned on Tuesday.

“We would like to apologise for any clean-ups we have missed, and we will try and ensure this doesn’t happen again.

"The car park has now been cleaned and we will follow up any further issues with fly-tipping through our enforcement team, and ensure that the area is monitored on a regular basis.”