SHOPS and businesses lost a day of trade when they were forced to close as toxic black smoke drifted across the area.

More than 140 firms were at White Lund were affected - meaning that some 1,120 working hours were lost.

Asda superstore on Ovangle Road lost 10 hours of business, although Dex Rose, the fresh production manager, could not say how much cash had been lost.

"We were told to close the store at 7.15am but then police evacuated the store and told all staff to leave at 9am because of the gas cloud. We did not re-open until 5pm.

"The store was busy at first but there were not masses of people queuing to come in when we re-opened," she adds.

Mike Roberts, a sales executive at Pye Motors, where the emergency services set up an incident room, says it is hard to know how much business was lost.

"We did not even get chance to open. We lost ae whole day and so I would hope that any sales we did loose will be made up, but you never know," he told the Citizen.

The landfill site and sports centre at Salt Ayre were also closed by police.

Normal refuse and recycled waste were split between Fleetwood and Clifton Marsh by Lancaster City Council.

A spokesman for the council, says: "The time it took to trans-fer the waste to these alternative sites obviously had an impact.

"In order to further minimise disruption, off duty staff were brought in and extra wagons dispatched."

Emergency services have now allowed the tip to reopen and the council has been given special permission by the Environment Agency to extend its opening hours from 4pm to 7pm in order to clear the backlog.

All children attending city council run playschemes in the Morecambe and Heysham areas stayed indoors.

The scheme at Loyne closed early when smoke began entering the building.