VILLAGE pub bosses say they feel under fire from their community after being forced to pay £6,500 to move their prized children’s play equipment - because neighbours complained about little ones spying on them.

The Half Butt Inn, in Nayland Road, Great Horkesley, installed a children’s fort, a wobbly rope bridge and a slide at a cost of £23,000 in a bid to entice families into the sizeable beer garden during the summer months.

But after a stream of complaints from residents near to the pub, Colchester Council launched an investigation.

It found the pub should have sought planning permission to install the equipment and has now ordered landlady Amanda Ross to move the apparatus ten feet away from the boundary fence to make sure children using the fort cannot peer into neighbours’ gardens.

She said: “It’s been so frustrating dealing with everything. There are days when I just want to cry.

“We are just a village pub trying to do our best and we’re having to deal with all of this.

“I hold my hands up, if I had known we needed planning permission - though it was all done through the pub’s owner - we obviously would have done it correctly.

“But we’ve offered everything we can to help and the council has just said ‘no’.”

Miss Ross first offered to build a bamboo fence beside the play equipment to block any potential line of sight into neighbours’ gardens, but that was refused.

She then offered to block the top of the fort turret to make sure children could only see the direction of the wobbly rope bridge, but again she received a ‘no’.

She added: “All we’re trying to do is make it a family-friendly pub, and it’s working.

“We got rid of Sky TV because it’s just so expensive so it’s not as if we’ve got a football crowd coming in and shouting getting on.

“Honestly, the only way we are going to survive is with that garden and to have to pay out £6,500 to move it when we’re already paying £23,000 to have it there is not going to help us survive is it?”

The complaints submitted to the council from residents include: “Unfortunately, we were never consulted before the apparatus was constructed.

“Our privacy has been compromised as children regularly stand on the top and look over into our garden and conservatory.

“Although on principle we don’t necessarily object, we are now having to consider increasing the height of our fence, which is an expense and inconvenience we should not have.

“One of the main reasons we bought our house was we were not overlooked by anyone.”

Another neighbour added: “The structure is huge, more in-keeping with a play area in a town park than a village pub garden.

“The size of the equipment indicates the landlord is expecting to attract a large number of children to the garden.

“This will cause a huge disturbance to those of us living alongside the pub.

“We already suffer disruption to our leisure time at the weekends due to the increased noise we have to endure. We are not able to relax in our own gardens as the noise from visitors to the pub makes it impossible.

“The extra noise, screaming and shouting from children using the fort-like play area will add to this.

“We would be better off living next to a school, at least the evenings and weekends would be quiet.”

Other neighbours also complained of footballs striking their fence and balls being kicked into their gardens.

One neighbour said: “The new climbing frames encourage children and young people to look into our gardens and downstairs living area.

“Often they are unsupervised by parents and some children use the facilities without their parents being customers.

“The noise level is unacceptable, in complete contrast to previous use of the garden.

“Older children are often heard swearing and taunting people in the adjacent gardens who they watch from the top of the new climbing frames.”

Another complainant wrote: “The climbing frame is close to the garden fence and the height allows those using it to look directly into my garden, kitchen , lounge and bedroom windows.”