Bicester hotel given shockingly poor food hygiene rating

The Chesterton Hotel located just outside Bicester is an opulent venue which also doubles up as a popular spot for weddings.

Despite favourable reviews on Tripadvisor, the hotel was rocked by its most recent hygiene inspection on Monday, March 25.

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The Chesterton Hotel near Bicester was inspected in March.

Cherwell District Council’s Environmental Health team were unimpressed with what they found and slapped the hotel with a lowly one-out-of-five hygiene rating.

Included in the report was one major cause of concern for inspectors which mainly revolved around the management of food safety.

This refers to having a system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat and was rated by the report as requiring ‘major improvement’.

It also regards whether there is evidence that staff know about food safety and if the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future.

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Kaven Gill says that paperwork was the reason for the one-out-of-five hygiene rating.

Director Kaven Gill spoke to the Oxford Mail following the report’s publication and offered up reasoning as to why the hotel was given the low rating.

“It was a paperwork issue but some training and recording of temperatures was the issue,” he said.

“We have since fixed the problem, and it’s a short-term issue but we are completely confident that moving forward it will be fine.

“It is all about paperwork and nothing to do with the actual hygiene.”

The director is worried about how the hotel will be perceived with the score in mind but takes responsibility for the errors made in the past.

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Inside the hotel which is located in Oxfordshire.

“Paperwork is still very important, but it's not like we have rats running around or anything like that,” said Kaven.

“The picture painted is doom and gloom but, in truth, it is a pristine kitchen with adequate staff running it.

“I invite anyone to come in and have a look at the kitchen but we acknowledge that the paperwork is important and we hold our hands up as it's something to rectify.

“There has been a changeover of staff and it is harder to train staff and get hold of the people who know how to record things correctly.

“We have good staff but we are training them internally so they don't always get it 100 per cent right in the beginning and not for a lack of trying of course.

“I am expecting a second inspection and the review should be happening in the next couple of weeks.”