The management of Kirkby Valley Golf Club said it has enjoyed 10 years of five-star-ratings and vowed to improve standards
Kirkby Valley Golf Club(Image: Google)
The manager of a golf club said he was “disappointed and really upset” after receiving a food hygiene rating of out of five, but vowed to implement the report’s recommendations. It comes after inspectors said ‘major improvements’ were necessary at Kirkby Valley Golf Club (KVGC).
Kirkby Valley Golf Course on Ingoe Lane was founded in 1928 and currently consists of an 18-hole course that is dissected by the River Alt. Whilst the golf course is located within Knowsley, the land is owned by Liverpool City Council who leased the course to the applicant, L32 Trading Ltd on a 150-year lease in 2019.
It was visited by Knowsley Council’s environmental health team for a food hygiene inspection on June 24. After assessing the café and food storage areas, the inspectors awarded KVGC a rating of one – the second lowest score possible.
In terms of ‘hygienic food handling’ and the ‘cleanliness and condition’ of the facilities and the building, the inspector’s report said these were ‘generally satisfactory’. This included approval for its management of ventilation, hand washing facilities and pest control.
Furthermore, the inspector noted that KVGC’s hygienic handling of food including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage, was all satisfactory. However, the inspector said that ‘major improvements’ were needed in KVGC’s management of food safety.
Kirkby Valley Golf Course(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The report identified the following improvement areas: “System or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future
Tony Stapleton. manager of Kirby golf club, told the Liverpool ECHO: “I was disappointed and really upset with the one-star-rating for the food hygiene inspection after ten years of having a five-star-rating.
“We’re not a restaurant, we don’t serve meals, it’s just breakfast stuff and sandwiches, but we do have high standards.
“All the paperwork seems to be up to date. There was one missing. It was basically a food daily diary, which we used to do and then stopped because basically every day you write down you’ve checked everything’s working, but we’ve reintroduced that.
“The food temperatures sheet, they were happy with, the cleaning tick list, they were happy with, the stock rotation sheet we did, fridge and freezer temperature sheet, that was all kept up to date.”
Mr Stapleton said the golf club have already initiated a number of improvements including the installation of new fridges and freezers and are already looking forward to the next inspection.
He added: “I’m absolutely confident the next time to come out, we’ll be back up to a five-star-rating again.”
