A hotel has been hit with a one-star food hygiene rating after hand wash was missing from the kitchen and e-scooters were left in food stores.

London Beach Hotel and Golf Club in St Michaels near Tenterden was slammed by health inspectors from Ashford Borough Council (ABC) following a visit on August 15.

But, bosses at the venue say this would not have happened had the majority of staff not been on holiday following a prior charity event at the hotel.

Hotel manager Jonathan Edmonds told KentOnline: “Unfortunately when the inspectors visited, our kitchen team and front of house manager had been given a three-day holiday after a busy charity function schedule that month and only our trainee breakfast chef was available.

“If the inspection had been done while the chefs had been available, no doubt this wouldn’t have happened.”

Mr Edmonds confirmed the kitchen team and manager were due to return to work the morning after the inspection.

In the report following the visit, inspectors noted e-scooters were being stored in the kitchen and charged in a food storage room.

The report told hotel bosses that an equipment “not used in conjunction with kitchen operations should not be kept in a food room”.

It was also found a sufficient labelling system was not in place to know when food was past its best with bad cucumbers and carrots found in a fridge.

“There was no documented food safety management system on-site at the time of the visit,” the inspector wrote in the report.

“Foods in fridges were not being labelled to indicate shelf life. Any foods that have been defrosted should be labelled with the date it was defrosted and a disposable date.

“There were some fresh foods (cucumber and carrots) that had gone bad in the fridges.”

In response to this, Mr Edmonds said the trainee chef on hand during the visit was unsure where some things had been filed and some of the processes.

He said: “The major issue was documentation with some of the kitchen food safety documents being an out-of-date version and the trainee breakfast chef not being sure where some things had been filed or some of the processes.”

The inspector also found no hand wash at the basin or in storage highlighting a risk of cross-contamination, adding equipment in the kitchen had poor cleanliness.

“There was no liquid antibacterial hand soap at the hand wash basin. There was none in storage or behind the bar,” the report read.

“[An employee] said that there has never been any hand soap at the hand wash basin since he has been at the business.”

Inspectors also found one employee had not received any food hygiene training and it was unclear whether the head chef or another trainee chef had either due a lack of evidence.

Other areas of the hotel kitchen were not clean including fridge and door handles, dials as well as under-counter fridges, flooring under ranges and shelving which were “dirty and greasy”.

‘If the inspection had been done while the chefs had been available, no doubt this wouldn’t have happened...’

Before this visit, London Beach Hotel and Golf Club had a five star food hygiene rating.

Mr Edmonds added: “There were also minor maintenance repairs needed that have already been completed.

“We have implemented all the suggestions as well as placing documentation in more visible easy to find locations and making sure guidance documents are the latest version and completing the trainee chefs general training to ensure this doesn’t happen again as well as making sure our all our managers are familiar with the filing systems and kitchen procedures.

“We are still awaiting a rescore, hopefully as soon as possible.”