During an official hearing at the Guildhall, Danny Edwards, landlord of the Boston Clipper in College Street, said a net would be put over the pub's beer garden to prevent people throwing things into the car park of a neighbouring department store.

He said: "There is a problem. We acknowledge that.

"We've tried to improve the situation and our final solution is the mesh and netting.

"The whole garden will be sealed and as far as I'm concerned, there will be no opportunity for any debris to go over the wall.

"I hope that will be a good enough solution to the problem."

The council had heard how staff at Debenhams had found discarded bottles, glasses, pornographic magazines, condoms and inflatable imitation animals.

The store's security manager, Kenneth Dowsett, said: "We're being plagued and we can't see a net working. Things have really got bad now and we're not prepared to tolerate it any more."

The council heard a number of store workers had suffered damaged car tyres because of broken glass.

Mr Dowsett said some workers had also been offended after finding material they considered offensive.

It was suggested the venue could become a members-only club to prevent further problems, but Mr Edwards said the move would not work.

He said: "We're a gay venue and what tends to be quite popular on the gay scene is people like to travel from other parts of the country to visit gay venues.

"So that could stop people being able to visit us from other areas."

After deliberating for almost an hour, the council committee warned Mr Edwards it would check to ensure the net, which is currently being put up, worked.

Committee chairman, Councillor John Caswell (Con, New Duston), said the matter would be reviewed within eight weeks: "We could suspend your licence, but we want you to be good neighbours."