The King William pub in Wigan was inspected by officers from Wigan Council’s environmental health team, on Monday 15 May following a complaint about a potential rat problem.
Officers found rodent droppings and material that had evidence of being gnawed by a rodent throughout the site.
They also found that preventative measures to stop rodents entering the building were inadequate, waste food and pooling water in an external yard and the standard of cleaning at the pub was very poor.
The pub was served with a hygiene emergency prohibition notice, which stopped it from operating as a food business until the health risk had been removed.
Significant improvements
On Thursday 18 May, Wigan & Leigh Magistrates' Court agreed with the action taken by the council officers and issued a hygiene emergency prohibition order, prohibiting the business from operating and ordered the pub to pay costs of £843.50.
The pub is working with environmental health officers to ensure the issues are resolved and it has been revisited by officers who have seen significant improvements being made.
A spokesperson from the council told The Morning Advertiser that since the initial court hearing, the order was lifted from the pub and was free to reopen.
Wigan Council assistant director for infrastructure and regulatory service Mark Tilley called the standards of hygiene at the pub “completely unacceptable”.
Community coming together
He said: “This left environmental health officers with no other choice but to serve a hygiene emergency prohibition notice, preventing them from using the premises as a food business until the health risks have been removed.
“The business is co-operating with officers and improvement works are being carried out.”
A spokesperson from the pub told The Morning Advertiser that the pub reopened on the Friday (19 May).
She said: “Everything has been decorated and cleaned from top to bottom throughout the pub and we have now got two cleaners.
“All the community came together. People who work and who drink here came together [to help] and that is how we managed to get the pub back open again.”