A PENDLE businessman has been slapped with a £2,500 bill after he used an empty shop window in a Yorkshire village to promote his firm.

Stephen Slater, who runs Woodcliffe Upholstery, based in Earby, was charged £2,500 in business rates by Craven Council for using the shop window in Cross Hills.

He said the high rates will leave the village with an ‘abandoned high street’.

He said: “The only facility I had was electricity. We have never had access to water and there was no customer access, no refuse collection and we had no access to the rear of the premises.

“It was purely a shop window facility which we paid rent to the landlord for.”