runs a burger restaurant in Canterbury,<\/a> says he could be forced to close his doors in the county town after \u201cbeing left to carry the consequences\u201d of a situation he did not create.<\/p>\n![\"Lockmeadow](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
Lockmeadow Food Hall was launched in 2021<\/p>\n
During the visit by the health and safety team, inspectors identified four issues at his stalls – three of which have already been addressed.<\/p>\n
The restaurant boss said: \u201cThe fourth relates to a design flaw in the front shutters, which contain holes that were part of the original construction\u2014a building owned and installed by Maidstone Borough Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a hygiene issue caused by us, but a structural one created and now maintained by the very same council who issued the rating.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also been told we should not even book a revisit until the shutter issue is resolved, yet the responsibility to fix it lies entirely with the council and their property management team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Notorious BRG team with the Mayor at the launch of the Lockmeadow Food Hall.<\/p>\n
The council confirmed it would look to fix the shutter by the end of April.<\/p>\n
Until now, Notorious B.R.G has never received less than a five-star hygiene rating across all of its sites, including Maidstone.<\/p>\n
But the impact of the latest inspection findings on the business has been \u201csevere\u201d.<\/p>\n
Deliveroo has given the eatery 21 days to prove the issues are resolved and a visit is scheduled or it will no longer allow them to use its service.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the food delivery company confirmed all its partners must have a minimum rating of two \u2013 any business that falls below this is flagged via a live feed and the restaurant is suspended pending action.<\/p>\n
Jonny says being removed from the platform would likely force them to close their doors.<\/p>\n
Notorious BRG and We Are Chicken stalls by the centre entrance<\/p>\n
Staff have already been informed that their jobs are officially at risk.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe are doing everything in our power to avoid that outcome, but time is running out while we wait for Maidstone Borough Council to resolve a problem of their own making.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we absolutely respect the importance of food safety, the inspection was extremely limited \u2013 our due diligence logs, temperature records, and food safety paperwork were never reviewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis rating does not reflect the reality of our hygiene standards.<\/p>\n
Lockmeadow Entertainment Centre in Maidstone<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud of our food, our team, and our role in the local community but right now, instead of being supported, we\u2019re being left to carry the consequences of a situation we didn\u2019t create.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flour Power, a bakery whose stall is located near the centre entrance, say they are disappointed to have also been handed a poor rating over factors they have \u201clittle control over within the building\u201d.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said: \u201cOurselves and the management team at Lockmeadow are working closely with the Environmental Health officer to get it sorted as fast as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlour Power is applying for a rescore soon – we have no idea when other than it will be carried out within the next three months.<\/p>\n
Food stallholders have hit back after the low hygiene scores<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are confident we will be back to our 5* rating in no time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take pride in our cleanliness as a business and are very disappointed to have been granted such a low score due to factors that we have little control over within the building.\u201c<\/p>\n
Streetfood by Easydine, which is located by the escalators leading to Odeon, Gravity and Hollywood Bowl, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the council said Lockmeadow Entertainment Centre has been working closely with its tenants and contractors to ensure it upholds \u201cexcellent standards\u201d which its visitors expect.<\/p>\n
Four stalls at Lockmeadow Food Hall have been handed one-star hygiene ratings<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cThe management of Lockmeadow Entertainment Centre has met with Maidstone Borough Council Environmental Health Officers to address the points raised as part of their inspection.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the recommendations, many have already been completed by Love Food @ Lockmeadow tenants and the centre management.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe remaining few points, including the replacement of roller shutters, will be completed by the deadline at the end of April.\u201d<\/p>\n
Property management company Fidum was approached for comment but did not respond at the time of writing.<\/p>\n
Jonny also runs sister stall\u00a0We Are Chicken<\/p>\n
The latest developments at Lockmeadow follow a series of poor hygiene ratings given to seven stores and restaurants at The Mall shopping Centre in the town centre also in February.<\/p>\n
Two were even forced to temporarily shut after inspectors discovered a \u201cwidespread\u201d mice infestations.<\/p>\n
KentOnline spoke to some business owners<\/a> who hit back at the centre owners for not acting on previously reported management issues and had suffered as a result.<\/p>\nSpeaking on the town\u2019s leisure complex, Jonny said: \u201cGiven recent reports of similar large-scale Environmental Health operations in Maidstone\u2014such as those at The Mall\u2014it\u2019s hard not to feel this is part of a wider enforcement effort triggered by recent media coverage, rather than a fair and balanced process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A restaurant boss says he has issued redundancy warning letters and could be kicked off food delivery platform…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,728,105,609,9137,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-13536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-maidstone","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114324603177149546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}