Archive for the ‘In the UK news’ Category



No hot meals at police HQ in Edinburgh after canteen is hit by mouse infestation

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk - 18 February 2012

POLICE are having to go without hot meals after a mouse infestation hit their canteen. Warm dishes are off the menu at Lothian and Borders Police headquarters in Fettes, Edinburgh, until the rodents are dealt with. Pest controllers have been called in to clear the mice from the canteen, which was refurbished in 2009 at a cost of £95,000. The building houses around 350 officers and civilian staff, who have had to make do with packaged sandwiches for about a week. One user said: “It’s funny but not really embarrassing for us as it’s privately run. They put a message round saying it would be closed off for an unknown length of time. “Apparently, there was initially a problem with the gas. “It had been closed off since the start of the week and will stay closed until they get the mice under control. “The canteen is used by all staff at headquarters and visitors. It’s quite a big place and well used.” Catering provider Sodexo, who are contracted by the force to run the canteen, confirmed the mouse hunt was under way. A spokeswoman said: “As a precautionary measure, food is not being served in the canteen.

“Only packaged food such as sandwiches is available.”

Rat infestation caused by feeding pond ducks

Rats have infested a public pond, tempted by food which people are leaving being left out for ducks. Cornwall Council’s public health and protection service is urging people not to leave food on the ground at Par Duck Pond, near St Austell. The council has carried out a baiting programme to tackle the infestation. Senior environmental health officer Graham Martin said putting out too much food could harm the ducks themselves. He said: “They potentially could be at risk in the spring when the rats could take eggs and possibly newly hatched ducklings.”

Sleeping in car for fear of rats

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk - By DAVID SEYMOUR - Wednesday 1 February 2012

A DISTRAUGHT mother has taken to sleeping in her car with her teenage son in fear for her family’s health after a rat infestation in her home.

Claire Johnson (43) has spent three of the last five nights sleeping in her Vauxhall Zafira in New England following a rat infestation and water leaks at her Accent Nene home in Ulverston Close, Paston. Mrs Johnson moved out of the housing association property at the start of December after a relative spotted a rat in the semi-detached house. It came after an incident in mid-November when a kitchen leak was traced back to a rat-chewed water pipe. Her four-year-old son has autism and she claims she was advised by his paediatrician that he would be at “considerable risk” of picking up diseases if he remained in the house as he constantly picks objects up and puts them in his mouth and has no sense of danger. The freelance writer for two US magazines admits that she missed two appointments with Accent Nene before Christmas to tackle the issue – the first due to a family funeral and the second due to her four-year-old son being admitted to hospital with a stomach bug. However, she claims that Accent Nene has delayed tackling the problem since a second leak, which she believes was caused by rats gnawing pipes, caused extensive damage to her living room on January 3. This has meant she has spent the intervening weeks largely at hotels and relying on takeaway meals, which has now exhausted her savings of more than £1,200 – including cash put aside for her 16-year-old son’s college education. Now she is resorting to sleep in her car together with her 16-year-old son, while her youngest child is staying with family where there is room for others. She is critical of Accent Nene for refusing the request she made on January 3 for temporary accommodation after the second leak and also says she was told she would not qualify for support from Peterborough City Council as she is not technically homeless. She said: “I feel like the system has totally failed me. I have never felt so low in my life because I feel that I’m failing my children.” On January 4, a member of the pest control team at Peterborough City Council visited the property to carry out initial baiting and removal of dead rats. Following another visit on January 23, Accent Nene has told Mrs Johnson that the twin issues of the rats and subsequent flooding has been resolved and the property is now habitable – an opinion that she strongly disputes. She said: “I was livid because the house is uninhabitable. It’s disgusting. There are rat droppings everywhere. The smell is horrendous.” Accent Nene has arranged to pay for hotel accommodation for her family for two nights while work to remove “unwanted items” from the home and garden takes place. She hopes to return to the property soon but is keen to see the same treatment she has received does not happen to others. She said: “Other people have got rat problems. I’m told you are never more than 10 metres from a rat, so there must be other people who have got disabled children who are going to be in the same situation.”

AN Accent Nene spokeswoman said: “Our senior surveyor and the housing officer visited Mrs Johnson on January 6 to inspect the damage. “It is the view of the pest control officer that there is no risk to Mrs Johnson or her family in coming back to reside at the property while treatment works continue. “The senior surveyor and housing officer took a number of photographs and believe the property is habitable. Therefore we are not able to provide temporary accommodation.” She added they are keen to support her in resolving all her issues. A Peterborough City Council spokesman said Mrs Johnson was provided with a out-of-hours contact number if she became homeless but had no further record of contact from her.

Mouse droppings found in Archway pub’s food

www.islingtongazette.co.uk by Josh Petitt - February 2, 2012

Health inspectors uncovered a mouse infestation at an Archway pub following a complaint by a wedding party of food poisoning, a court heard. Mouse droppings were found littered across the small kitchen of the Old Crown in Highgate Hill less than 10 days after the watering hole hosted a lunch and buffet for 58 wedding guests. When Islington Council officials paid the pub a visit they found rotting food and mouse faeces in food, a sink and on work surfaces, Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Corner heard on Tuesday. The kitchen – which had been hired out by parents for children’s parties – was shut down for two weeks on March 14 last year and pest control services had to be called in. Giving evidence senior environmental health officer Andrew Walker said: “I decided the premises were an imminent risk to health and I closed it for the sake of public protection.” Pub owner Patrizia Grison said staff had reported sightings to her and she had even seen a mouse in the lead up to the inspection. In an interview read out in court the 46-year-old said she had been working in the catering industry for years and it was a “daily routine seeing mice in the kitchen”. Grison, who lives in the pub, claimed the kitchen was only used for events and on the weekends after midweek demand fell off. She pleaded guilty to seven counts of failing food hygiene standards and was fined.  Grison, defending herself in court, said she had taken the pub on three years ago after splitting from her partner. “It has been a rollercoaster. At the beginning I had great ideas, I expected to have a great menu, to make it a family venue. It was near the church and park and hoped to attract families,” she told magistrates before breaking down in tears. “To me it [the kitchen] looked perfect. She added that she had fired a Portuguese member of staff who had been tasked with keeping the kitchen clear and the situation was much improved.

Island of Montecristo to be bombed with poison after rat infestation

http://www.telegraph.co.uk

It was immortalised by the novelist Alexandre Dumas as the location for a stash of buried treasure, but the tiny Italian island of Montecristo is now struggling with a rather less romantic reality – a plague of black rats.

Rat infested restaurant Woo in Edmonton closed down by court

http://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk - David Hardiman

A RESTAURANT has been closed down after investigators found “a disgusting catalogue” of hygiene offences and a rat infestation. Chinese restaurant Woo, in Fore Street, Edmonton, was immediately closed by environmental health officers on January 12, after they found rat droppings throughout the building – including under cookers – and a lack of any cleaning equipment. Staff were using dirty clothes to clean surfaces, and rodents had gnawed holes in the kitchen, giving them easy access to food and cooking  equipment. At Enfield Magistrates Court yesterday, the business was ordered to pay £900 costs and owner Thien Ngo was issued with a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Order, banning the restaurant from reopening until the problems have been dealt with. Enfield Council’s cabinet member for environment, Chris Bond, said the “disgusting catalogue of failings” had endangered customers’ health and pledged to close any other business that fails to deliver the required standards.

Mouse droppings, grease and rotting food at Peninsula Chinese restaurant in Bugsby’s Way, Greenwich

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk - By Mark Chandler - Monday 23rd January 2012

A CHINESE restaurant which packs in hundreds of hungry Greenwich diners every night has been handed a record fine and branded “a disaster waiting to happen”. Owners of the Peninsula Restaurant in Bugsby’s Way were fined £54,000 and banned from running restaurants in the future after admitting 18 breaches of food hygiene regulations. The restaurant was closed following a visit last April when environmental health officers found mouse droppings amongst packets of food, next to plates and inside a roll of cling film in the kitchen. Thick grease lined the floor beneath the cooking range, while vegetables had been left to rot on the floor of the walk-in fridge. No paper towels at hand basins meant it was difficult for kitchen staff to maintain good standards of personal hygiene, Greenwich Council said.

 

Despite being closed, in accordance with food laws, the council had to let the business reopen after eight days once the kitchen was cleaned and the original mouse infestation treated. It is the second time the venue, which was recently handed a four-star review by Time Out magazine, has been prosecuted in two years. Back in February 2010 the owners were fined £13,500 after similar breaches. At Woolwich Crown Court on

January 19, Judge Charles Byers told restaurant owners Crestdane, the kitchen was in a “disgraceful state” and the conditions were a “disaster waiting to happen.”

 

Greenwich cabinet member for community safety and environment Councillor Maureen O’Mara said: “The hygiene conditions at this restaurant were an absolute disgrace. “The key priority seemed to be placing profits over offering good quality food by operating with a blatant disregard for the health of their customers. “We have tried to support the

restaurant to clean up its act, but they have consistently failed to do so.” At the time of going to press, the restaurant was still open for business.

 

 

Pigeon Lady of Pimlico given ASBO

http://www.pimlicopeople.co.uk - By James_Mass - 03/01/2012

A woman dubbed the ‘Pigeon Lady of Pimlico’ for 25 years has been hit with an ASBO by Westminster Council, banning her from feeding the birds in the area for the next three years.  Nadia Lee, 64, was often spotted pushing a pram around Pimlico, which was filled with grain she used to scatter for the pigeons. Any injured birds she came across she would gently put into one of her designer handbags and take back to her £750,000 Georgian maisonette, where she would then nurse them back to health. However, fed up residents made a string of complaints about her behaviour as their homes and vehicles became caked in pigeon droppings. Some locals also claimed that rats were attracted to the area, causing a health hazard. Born to secretary mother and pilot father, Lee was privately educated and was well known for living a secure, elegant lifestyle and quite often was seen driving her Rolls-Royce. After the death of her mother though Lee became more of a recluse and was spotted by neighbours going through public bins. It was then that she began to feed the pigeons that brought her such notoriety. Despite the complaints and with her ASBO now taking effect, Lee did acquire support from some residents; 95 in total signed a petition that declared their support in recognition of her services to wildlife.

Householders fined over dumped rubbish

http://www.shieldsgazette.com - 17 December 2011

THREE people have each been fined £350 for environmental offences. Deborah Elstob, Walter Osguthorte and Jean Whalen – all from South Shields –were prosecuted by South Tyneside Council after failing to comply with orders. The council prosecuted Elstob, 45, of Hampshire Way, after she ignored a notice to remove a large quantity of household waste from her back garden. Osguthorte, 66, and Whalen, 46, who live in separate properties in Marlborough Street North, were both taken to court after failing to clear decaying furniture from their back yards. Whalen’s yard also contained other rotting waste. Coun Jim Perry, South Tyneside Council’s lead member for neighbourhoods and environment, said: “Prosecution is always a last resort, but each of these residents repeatedly ignored our requests to remove their waste from their properties, including abatement notices. “In each case, our environmental health service came to the conclusion that the nature of the waste involved increased the risk of attracting a rat infestation.” All three residents were dealt with by South Tyneside magistrates on November 29. On top of their fines, each was also ordered to pay the council £110 in costs as well as a £15 victim surcharge.

Keep bed bugs away

http://www.hc2d.co.uk - 15TH DECEMBER 2011

Researchers at Sheffield University say that hairier skin may be the key to avoiding being bitten by bed bugs.

Writing in the journal Biology Letters, they suggest that hungry bed bugs placed on shaved arms were more likely to try to feed compared with those on unshaved arms. They believe that hair slows down the bed bugs and warns the victim. It comes as pest controllers across the UK say the country is currently experiencing a steep rise in the number of bed bug infestations.

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