A BREWERY claims travellers were responsible for ruining its pub and driving away other customers away.

Gray & Sons have just submitted a planning application to Basildon Council outlining a refurbishment of the Duke of York Pub in Southend Road, Billericay.

The pub has been boarded up since late 2010 and the brewery claim it was the venue for “unruly and intimidating behaviour” by certain customers which put off other potential patrons.

However, nearby travellers from Dale Farm in Crays Hill have refuted the claims, saying it was irresponsible and discriminatory to blanket blame a whole community for the actions of a few.

The brewery’s application to the council states: “In the recent past, a group of individuals from a nearby community decided to make the Duke of York their drinking place and frequented the establishment en masse on a regular basis.

“As a result of the newcomers’ unruly and intimidating behaviour, the local patrons soon went elsewhere and as word got round so did those who regularly used the restaurant.”

It added the pub rapidly went downhill and the restaurant was no longer viable.

The pub was given a makeover with newly upholstered seats.

The report added: “Unfort- unately this proved fruitless as within 12 months the clientele had reduced the interior back to its original state with slashed seating and spoiled decoration.

“It was at this stage the owners felt they had no alternative but to close the premises.”

From 2004 until last year, there were more than 20 incidents reported to police connected to the pub, including assaults, thefts, criminal damage, disturbances and urinating outside.

Basildon Council received 20 complaints – 13 over noise.

However, Grattan Puxon, a campaigner close to the families at Dale Farm, said: “I am surprised the brewery has said this as the pub seemed friendly towards them and must have taken thousands of pounds from them over the years.

“It is also unfair to blanket label everyone in a community for the actions of a small minority.

“However, it seems to be par for the course in people’s discriminatory treatment of travellers.”

The brewery plans to reopen the pub with a much bigger restaurant and better disabled access in the hope it will attract different customers.