IF EVER there is a trade that depends on word-of-mouth appraisal, it is the restaurant business.

But what a backlash this has for Andy Grey, manager of a Ribble Valley restaurant suffering as the rumour mill grinds away while council officials refuse to name the establishment suspected of causing an outbreak of E.coli.

His isn't the place involved in the alert. But the council's decision not to name the one that is - despite calls by the Community Health Council for it to identify the premises in the public interest - is hitting his trade to the extent that he may soon have to lay off staff.

Fair? Hardly!

But if health investigators and council chiefs believe they are right to protect suspect premises until they have proof, do they not then have a duty to reach a conclusion much faster than they have in this case - when as the weeks pass, the innocent businesses in the area are unjustly harmed?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.