Hammersmith hostelry has a 'public mouse'
A busy pub in Lyric Square has been fined thousands of pounds following complaints from disgusted customers about mice.
JD Wetherspoon Plc, the group that owns the William Morris pub, was fined £1,500 plus £5,854 in legal costs after mice were found in the pub's kitchen.
On Thursday 17 July, West London Magistrates Court heard that over a period of eight months in 2006, Hammersmith and Fulham Council received three separate complaints of mice at the pub.
The council’s environmental health officers visited the pub on each occasion and found mouse droppings in the kitchen the first two times and also in the bar area on one occasion.
The pub voluntarily closed their kitchen twice before re-opening once inspectors were happy that their standard of hygiene had improved.
However, by the third visit from the council in December 2006, standards had deteriorated so badly that inspectors found layers of grease and food on the floor, along with more mouse droppings.
Councillor Greg Smith, Cabinet Member for Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour, said: “The people responsible for this pub ignored repeated warnings from food safety officers that they needed to raise their standards.
“Mice carry salmonella and other bacteria that can lead to terrible food poisoning. It does not take a genius to work out that leaving them to run amuck in a dirty kitchen will lead to someone becoming seriously ill.”
JD Wetherspoon opened its first pub in 1979 and now owns 699 high street pubs across the UK.
August 21 , 2008
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