ALE ENTHUSIASTS have slammed the claim Reading is one of the worst places in the country to get a good old fashioned British pint.

The comments come after a report was published citing the town as being the least likely place for punters to get top quality beer.

According to the research as much as half of all pints served up around Reading come from unclean pipes and the team from Cask Marque labelled it as the "worst place for crimes against beer cleaning".

It came bottom of the list for well-served drinks, closely followed by Hereford, Plymouth, Andover and Swindon.

Reading and Slough were also mentioned in the top places for wasting drinks through poor management of their pipes.

In the report, it said: "One in every two pints in these towns and cities is being served through unclean beer lines with Reading in Berkshire the worst place for crimes against beer cleaning and Doncaster the best place to enjoy a perfect pint, with beer drinkers having less than a one in five chance of being served a bad pint."

The north of England fared far better in the research with Doncaster, Southport and Chesterfield coming out on top.

However Quinten Taylor, the vice-chairman of the Reading and Mid Berks CAMRA branch, has criticised the report.

He said: "This comes from Cask Marque which pubs can elect to join so it is not reflective of all pubs and some of the data comes from Vianet who are interested in the supply of beer line cleaning equipment.

"In Reading we have for example the Nags Head, Castle Tap and Fox and Hounds in Caversham and all three of them are not signed up with Cask Marque.

"So if you think of that in terms of how much real ale is drunk in the area that kind of torpedoes their headline figure that one in two pints are no good.

"We would definitely take umbrage with that and Reading, as far as we are concerned, the quality of pubs is excellent and can compare with pretty much any other town of a comparable size."