THE OWNERS of a York pub will have to pay an £11,500 court bill after admitting to a catalogue of kitchen grime.

The extent of the dirt in the kitchen at Lendal Cellars was brought to light in a routine inspection by City of York Council in January this year.

When environmental health officer Rachel Lambley visited the pub on January 15, she found a series of dirt and maintenance offences, including:

* A dirty staff loo and wash-basin* Grime building up on doors * So much grease built up on the ventilation above the cooking area that droplets of it were falling on to the cooker* Splattered food* Mould growing in the cellar * Chopping boards heavily scored so they could not be properly cleaned.

A damning dossier of photographs depicting the filth was presented at a hearing in York Magistrates' Court this week.

Sean Suckling, prosecuting on behalf of the council, said there was a danger of food being served to the public getting contaminated.

He said: "These findings gave serious concerns to the inspector. It transpires from the evidence that the company were aware of the problems with the kitchen as far back as September 2006.

"The offences have been brought through significant breaches of food safety legislation.

"The breaches were committed by a large national company which should have procedures in place to ensure that one of their branches did not fall into such a poor state."

Pub owners Greene King Brewing & Retailing admitted three charges of failing to keep food premises clean and maintained; failing to ensure that equipment with which food came into contact was effectively cleaned and disinfected, and failing to implement proper food hygiene procedures under the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system.

The hearing heard that Lendal Cellars did have a HACCP system, but it was not being properly implemented.

Naomi Gilchrist, mitigating, said: "This is a situation where the company relied on a day-to-day basis on the house manager to carry out their proper procedures and policies in the manner required - it's perfectly plain that the house manager wasn't doing that.

"It's not a question of the company not training its employees, it's really a question of them not carrying out what they should have carried out."

The hearing heard that big improvements had now been made.

The pub was fined £3,500 for each of the first two offences, £2,000 for the third, plus court costs of £2,500.


Owners apologise through spokesman

Greene King spokesman Phil Holt said: "We'd like to apologise sincerely to our customers for an unacceptable lapse in our usually very high standards which occurred back in 2006.

"We have taken a series of robust measures to ensure this will never happen again.

"A stronger team is now in place, food standards are top priority and we've spent more than £20,000 on refurbishing the pub including extensive work on the kitchen.

"We are now confident that things are back to their normal high standards and the situation is being constantly monitored."