A CAFÉ owner has slammed the county council for using a layby outside her business to store stone chippings, blocking off the entrance.

Elizabeth Boult, who has run Brookside Café in Copcut, off the A38 for six months, said the chippings have been there for weeks but now cones are also blocking off access.

Since the weekend, the 51-year-old said the pile has got bigger and, along with the cones, is blocking off the layby which leads to her business, she claims, meaning her takings are down by 50 per cent.

“It’s a nuisance – the customers can’t use the layby," she explained. "They’re completely put off coming in.

“We took such a loss yesterday, we might as well not have opened,” she said on Wednesday.

“The stone has just been dumped there – it seems like they're dropping more and more off all the time.

"I've contacted the council but they're interested."

She said people coming from Droitwich have to do a U-turn on the A38 to access the site, while lorries are unable to access the layby.

“If you’re coming from the Droitwich direction and a lorry is coming behind you, if someone tries to overtake they could come into the back of you. It’s created a traffic issue.

“If lorry drivers have clocked up the hours they need to be able to pull in somewhere, but they can’t.”

The county council has said the layby is regularly used to store wood chippings, as are many other laybys in the county.

Jon Fraser, from Worcestershire County Council Highways, said: “We use a number of our laybys across the county during the summer months to store chippings that are used for surface dressing.

“The layby on the A38 close to the Brookside Fruits Cafe is regularly used to store chippings.

“The café has its own private carpark for customers and the chippings being stored in the layby do not obstruct the entrance to this carpark.”