LICENSEE Ant Brooke says he is horrified that his attempts to make one of the Pewsey Vale's most popular pubs even better have been construed as desecration.

The allegation has been made in an anonymous letter circulating in Bottlesford, copies of which have been sent to the Gazette and to Kennet District Council.

It claims that Mr Brooke and his wife Sarah who run the Seven Stars Inn with their son Seb and daughter Naomi "appear to have no love of the countryside they have bought into".

But it has had the effect of Kennet ordering the landscaping work to stop in the touring caravan site behind the pub while talks are held to see if planning consent is needed.

The unsigned letter stated: "Moving from Yorkshire, this ex-vicar seems to think he can do as he will and damn the consequences."

The family bought the Seven Stars ten months ago having sold a pub and leisure centre in Yorkshire. At the time Mr Brooke said he intended to improve the small Caravan Club certified site behind the pub.

He spoke of his intention to have a stream and a series of small lakes dredged to remove years of accumulated silt and to level parts of the field.

That dredging work has been taking place during the winter and, said Mr Brooke, he took the opportunity while the mechanical digger was on site to level the sloping, long narrow field, to make it safer for caravans. He admits the bare earth is unsightly, but said it would be replanted.

The letter complains that a caravan has been placed in the pub's back garden to house the chef adding 'yet this place has run for years without extra accommodation'.

Mr Brooke said that previously the pub was home to only its two owners, whereas he has a family of five, including his mother. "The caravan is only a temporary way around our accommodation problems and we have now applied for planning permission for it," he said.

Once a priest for seven years, Mr Brooke said he was saddened that someone had resorted to anonymous letter writing rather than going to the pub to discuss the work taking place.

As to the claimed "boycott" of the pub, Mr Brooke said: "We have doubled the trade."