Pub owners have been ordered to pay almost £6,500 for breaching food and safety rules after rat droppings were found in the food storage areas and the kitchen was not adequately cleaned. The council’s food safety team visited The Queens Head public house in The Street, Crowmarsh Gifford near Wallingford on October 1 2019, to carry out a routine inspection. They found the kitchen dirty, with grease and food debris on the cooking range, grease encrusted on the fryers and rat droppings in the storage area and cellar. Hygiene inspectors reported poor standards of cleaning which could allow cross contamination of food and out of date food in the fridges.
A MAN who threw his bags of rubbish away in a hedgerow has been ordered to pay £675 in fines and costs. Cherwell District Council’s street cleansing team spotted the 12 bags of waste dumped in a country hedgerow when driving between Kidlington and Bletchingdon in June. When removing the rubbish, the council’s environmental enforcement officers uncovered letters and packaging that allowed them to direct their investigation to the Kidlington area. An offender was tracked down and pleaded guilty to a duty of care offence in relation to controlled waste at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on November 13. Councillor Dan Sames, Cherwell District Council’s lead member for clean and green, said: “This incident serves as a warning to those that try to cut corners when needing to dispose of excess waste. It may be tempting to use the services of someone offering to take waste away on the cheap or to dump it by a roadside or in a field but it could end up costing you much more