By Phil Coleman

Last updated 17:37, Thursday, 15 May 2008

A SICKENING smell is disrupting business at a Carlisle shop, driving customers away and costing the business thousands of pounds every week.

What a whiff! Derek Colville, John Platton and Shelagh McDonald endure the smell

The manager of the Spar in Denton Street, Denton Holme, says he has waited three weeks for United Utilities to send staff to unblock a drain outside the shop so the problem in the shop can be cured.

With the arrival of warmer weather, the smell has got so bad that some of John Platton’s staff are threatening to stay away from work.

United Utilities have denied that a blocked drain has caused the problem, but promised to flush the drain in question to help.

But Mr Platton explained how he had hired the Kingmoor Park firm Andidrain to investigate the smells.

They removed smells from the back of the shop by renovating pipework but they couldn’t cure the main problem because they said they found a blocked drain in East Nelson Street, just outside the shop’s entrance, and that prevented them getting access to the source of the problem.

Mr Platton said Andidrain have taken pictures of the blocked drain. He said: “It’s been particularly bad for the last three or four months.

“There have been times when the smell just disappears but at the moment it’s awful.

“It’s so bad I reckon I’m losing between 30 and 40 per cent of my business.

“But it’s not just the money – it’s the effect on my staff who have to work here for four or five hours at a time.

“Two or three are threatening not to come in because they can’t stand it.”

Mr Platton said United Utilities told him three weeks ago that they would sort out the problem with the blocked main drain. “Why would they blast it all out if it wasn’t blocked?” he said.

They investigated the problem again earlier this week shortly after Mr Platton contacted the News & Star. He has now contacted water industry regulator Ofwat in the hope of finding a quicker solution.

He added: “It really is terrible. It’s costing the business thousands of pounds a week. There are 10 people living in the flats above the shop and it can’t be nice for them.”

Sheila McDonald, who works at the shop, said: “We know that John is doing everything he can to get it sorted, but United Utilities want to get themselves into gear.

“The smell makes it difficult working here: it makes you feel sick.”

A United Utilities spokeswoman said wastewater engineers who opened the public sewer had found it was not blocked.

She added: “A third party firm hired by the Spar owner told United Utilities that they could not find the shop’s connection into the public sewer system from the shop.”

She said the firm’s engineers were due to flush the system this week and check that the shop was connected.

She added: “If not, it becomes the owner’s responsibility to ensure he is properly connected. All our investigations to date would indicate that there is a defect with the shop’s own sewer system, which United Utilities is not responsible for.”

PColeman@cngroup.co.uk