A landlady has slammed the council after a cancelled rubbish pick-up led to her being given a £300 fine.

Lara Read, said that she had left rubbish to be privately collected outside The Heart and Hand in North Road, Brighton, after the pub was damaged by a fire.

After the pick-up was not possible due to “biblical” rain, Lara says she was then given the fine just hours before a re-arranged collection was due to take place.

Lara, who has been landlady at the pub since 2006, said: “I would get it if I was doing something wrong but there’s no room for human error.

“The collectors were trying to do two days work in one day. They seem to be sticking it to small businesses.

“It’s not like I was putting it in bins that I’m not allowed to. It’s so upsetting.”

Lara says that the incident, which took place on Thursday, November 17, forced her to open late as she had to bring all of the fire damaged rubbish into the pub.

At 12.45pm Lara received a ticket from Brighton and Hove City Council for breaking the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The re-arranged collection took place at around 4pm the same day.

The rubbish had been due to be collected after a fire in the cellar of The Heart and Hand forced the pub to close for over a month in September.

The Argus: The Heart and Hand in North RoadThe Heart and Hand in North Road (Image: NQ Staff)

Four fire engines were previously called to the pub which had to be evacuated. A “fault in the air conditioning unit” was blamed for the blaze.

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “As part of any business's duty of care, they have a legal obligation to ensure waste is secure and always maintained.

“On this occasion we issued a fixed penalty notice because the waste was left unsecured and causing a nuisance to the users of the pavement.”

Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 states that “Anyone who produces, imports, keeps, stores, transports, treats or disposes of waste must take all reasonable steps to ensure that waste is managed properly”.