A TOWN centre trader has accused burger giant McDonald's of using the road outside his shop as a tip.

Paul Clark, of the Cutting Crew salon on Northgate, Blackburn, says he has been fighting a running battle with the Blackburn branch of the fast food restaurant for the past six months.

And he said he was fed up at his customers having to weave through half eaten buns, burgers, tomatoes, cartons and ketchup all over the ground at the back of the King William Street restaurant before they get to his salon.

Mr Clark said: "I have been on the phone to McDonald's head office constantly to get this basic hygiene problem sorted out but I have had no joy.

"It is very frustrating being a small businessman trying to take on a massive corporation like McDonald's.

"I have been in the restaurant and shouted at the management more than once but the situation has just never improved. "In the end I rang up the McDonald's head office and they gave me assurances that the problem would be sorted out. But a week after, the situation was as bad as ever.

"I have been in touch with the environmental health department at the council on four occasions and I am hopeful they will be able to do something to sort this out."

"I have been here for more than six years and up until six months ago I had absolutely no problem whatsoever. So why on earth McDonald's should have suddenly started acting like this I really don't know."

McDonald's spokesman Steve Hall said: "We always take situations such as this seriously and we will certainly be investigating why these problems have cropped up in the last six months when before that there was nothing wrong."

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