SHOULD you wish to play ketchup on the latest profit-making ploys, ask Michael Hjort, owner of Melton's restaurant in York.

He received an oh-so-polite letter, dated January 14, from a man who praised the excellent food and service he and his wife received the previous week, but complained that when he sat down "some kind of sauce had been left on my seat".

To remove a large stain at the cleaners cost him £12.50. Could the restaurant please reimburse the cost?

Well, what's wrong with that?

Nothing, except that there was no dry cleaning receipt, or copy of one enclosed. And he managed to have this excellent meal at some time during the three weeks that the Scarcroft Road restaurant was closed for holidays The verdict of Michael's PA, Debbie Waite: "He's got sauce all right, but not any that he got here."

Now, as secretary of the York Hospitality Association, Michael has warned 30 city restaurants to watch out for similar attempts to clean up.


THERE'S definitely something funny in the water in Hillam, near Monk Fryston, The Diary has learned.

To be more precise, that something includes unpleasant bugs, and high levels of metals, including iron, aluminium, manganese and zinc.

A warning has been sent to villagers to stick to the mains supply, after experts from Yorkshire Water analysed the quality of water from a recently restored village pump.

Members of the local historical society were delighted to unveil the repaired well pump in July. They even invited local resident Freda Webster to draw the first bucketful - 70 years since she last did it as a girl, before the village was connected to the mains in 1936.

In those bygone days the pumped supply was used for drinking, as well as by farmers, who used it to water their horses and fill steam-driven threshing machines.

But society members thought they should check the water quality before allowing present-day residents to refresh themselves.

And after an appeal for help, experts from Yorkshire Water stepped in with their testing kits. Samples were taken both from the pump, and from taps connected to the mains in the area.

And, after laboratory analysis, the scientists concluded that the water from the pump was certainly not safe to drink.

Yorkshire Water project engineer and Hillam resident Chris Fell said: "The historical society has done the village a great service by restoring the pump but, unfortunately, it would appear from our results that the well is contaminated. The Drinking Water Inspectorate certainly wouldn't be giving it a clean bill of health.

"Both traces of bacteria and high levels of lead make it unsafe while high levels of iron, aluminium, manganese and zinc all contribute to general discolouration.

"It would be okay to get it on your hands, but I'm afraid the well shouldn't be seen as an alternative to water from the tap."