Towards the end of January the Secretary received questionnaire from Fylde Council enquiring in considerable detail about the club’s practices and attitude to the supply of food. The initial reaction was to ignore it since we do not in our opinion act as any form of restaurant or supply food as an activity.
In the end the questionnaire was sent back trying to make this point.
Subsequently two officials arrived unexpectedly on the 30th January for a surprise inspection.
This was an unfortunate choice of date since the leak from the pipe under the kitchen floor had been identified and fixed, but the hole in the floor remained. The Inspectors were tempted to close the kitchen (and bar) because of this, but in the end gave us eight weeks to sort this out.
The inspection confirmed that keeping as much as a bottle of milk in the fridge put us within their auspices and we have been told to keep a daily record of temperatures in the main fridge and the smaller one keeping “butties’, this latter small fridge need constant attentions since it should not hold food unless its temperature is below 8 degrees and it has little or no adjustment mechanism.
Other concerns covered the general tidiness of the bar area.
Most of the items have already had some attention, particular thanks to the President for quickly painting the shelves below the bar. More electric points have been put in to avoid so many adaptors and trailing wires.
On the negative side this inspection has resulted in a low rating of 2 on the National Food Hygene Rating Scheme ( from the guidelines it looks like we would have achieved at least a 4 without the hole in the floor. Whilst this is of little concern given our non-service and preparation of food, it has been published on the Council Website and may get picked up by members or third parties.
Sid and his House Committee have all this in hand working closely with Council.