Swindon's Top Ten Worst Premises for Food Hygiene

Felt Ill after leaving Cosmo's before. Thought the place was shit and feel somewhat vindicated now. Cosmo's the place everyone was wanking over a few months ago, got zero stars from the council for food hygeine.

Swindon's Top Ten Worst Premises for Food Hygiene

01.09.2009

A Mexican restaurant, two kebab takeaways, an Oriental restaurant and a hotel are some of the latest venues to receive zero stars for food hygiene in Swindon.

La Casa Mexican restaurant and takeaway in Devizes Road and Cosmo Oriental restaurant in Linden Court have both received the lowest possible scores from Swindon Borough Council's Commercial Regulation Team.

The kebab takeaways are Walcot Kebab and Pizzeria in Sussex Square, and Oriental Express in Clive Parade. The hotel is the Ivy Hotel, Moormead Road, Wroughton. They make up a list of the top ten worst food businesses that have received a zero star rating for hygiene this year.

The premises were graded under the council's Scores on Doors scheme.

Food businesses are awarded stars to show how well they comply with food safety legislation. The scheme is based directly on the risk assessment that is carried out by law during a food inspection.

Under the scheme, a score of one star is deemed poor, two is satisfactory, three is good, four is very good and five is excellent.

Zero stars indicate unacceptable hygiene conditions and almost total non-compliance with statutory obligations. Premises with zero star ratings are often found to have poor hygiene, poor cleaning and risk of cross contamination. In the most serious cases, the Council has the authority to use emergency closure powers.

In addition to receiving a certificate, each business receives a full food hygiene report, detailing what needs to be done to comply with the law and recommended good practices to help improve the business even further.

If the work is done and the business continues to maintain the hygiene standards, the score at the next inspection could improve.

Cllr Colin Lovell, Cabinet Member for a Safer and Stronger Borough, said: "The majority of Swindon food businesses do comply with the law and many are very good indeed. Unfortunately a small minority have shown to have very poor standards during the unannounced inspections.

"Star ratings will hopefully give the public more confidence in the places they eat and give them a better understanding of the standards of food hygiene. Hopefully this scheme will encourage businesses to maintain a good standard."

Since the Scores on Doors scheme was introduced in Swindon in April 2007, 1,159 inspections of food businesses have been completed by environmental health officers, who sit within the Commercial Regulation Team.

List of Premises with Zero Stars

Currently, the ten premises with zero stars (with the date of the latest inspection) are as follows:

Hythe Road Stores, Hythe Road (21 January 2009)

Lower Shaw Farm, Old Shaw Lane (3 March 2009)

La Casa, 6 Devizes Road (19 May 2009)

Princetons Grill, 8 Market Street (22 May 2009)

M Nawaz Food Store, 105 Broad Street (18 June 2009)

Oriental Express, 8 Clive Parade (21 July 2009)

Cosmo Restaurant, Linden Court, Holbrook Way (9 July 2009)

UK Leisurewear, In House Catering, Unit 1 Westmead Drive (15 July 2009)

Walcot Kebab & Pizzeria, 14 Sussex Square (8 July 2009)

Ivy Hotel, Moormead Road, Wroughton (16 July 2009)