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08 December 2023
A Northampton restaurant has been fined £33,097 for hygiene breaches following successful prosecution by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) after health protection officers found poor hygiene standards during a routine visit.
At Wellingborough Magistrates Court on Tuesday 5 December, the food business operators of Kerala Hut, Wellingborough Road, Northampton, pleaded guilty to 12 charges of breaching food safety and hygiene regulations.
Prosecuting the case from the WNC in-house legal team, Susan Desfontaines informed the Court that the case followed a routine inspection and subsequent revisits carried out between 28 September 2022 and 31 March 2023 when WNC officers found that the kitchen was not kept clean, equipment in contact with food was in a filthy condition and/or was in poor repair, food was not being protected from contamination, and adequate facilities for cleaning hands had not been provided. In addition to this, Hygiene Improvement Notices that had been served on the company, had not been complied with.
The food business operator, Kerala Hut Ltd, together with the three company directors, were charged with 12 counts of breaching the Food Safety and Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.
The company and the three directors received fines totalling £33, 097 (which included victim surcharges of £3,742) and were ordered to pay the prosecution costs of £3,147.87 in full.
I welcome the decision made by the Wellingborough Magistrates Court. We take these kinds of offences extremely seriously. Food business operators have a legal responsibility to provide safe food and maintain hygiene standards; those who do not must be held accountable for their actions.Cllr David Smith, WNC’s Cabinet Member for community safety, engagement and regulatory servicesThis prosecution by the Council sends out a clear message to the food industry that non-compliance will not be tolerated.
To find out more about food hygiene ratings across West Northamptonshire download the ‘West Northamptonshire Council’ app from the app store on your mobile phone or tablet.
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06 December 2023
The Northampton Museum and Art Gallery Volunteer Military Archive and Research Team have won a national award and been highly commended for the Volunteers in Museum Learning Award issued by the Marsh Trust in conjunction with the British Museum.
The 6 volunteers make the military archive of objects and documents relating to the Northamptonshire Regiment and the Northamptonshire Yeomanry accessible by answering family history queries alongside book and other research enquiries. The team also support visits to the collection and in January, were on hand to provide support to the new recruits from C-Company Anglian Regiment during their visit to see the Victoria Crosses held by the museum.
The volunteers contribute different skills and expertise to the group and meet every week at the museum. In 2022 they answered 148 external and internal enquiries during 2016 hours of volunteering and received lots of fantastic compliments – occasionally even making people cry with happiness.
I am absolutely thrilled that the Volunteer Military Archive and Research Team has been recognised by the British Museum for their dedicated work at Northampton Museum and Gallery.Cllr Adam Brown, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing, Culture and Leisure at West Northamptonshire CouncilIt was a pleasure to meet with the team recently to discuss their work which has a significant value for visitors to the local area.
I want to thank all those involved for enabling people to learn about Northamptonshire’s military history and connect with their family history.
The British Museum and the Marsh Charitable Trust have been working in partnership for the fifteenth year through the Volunteers for Museum Learning award which recognises the hugely important contribution that volunteers make to help museums engage with their visitors. The award forms part of a programme of awards presented by the Marsh Charitable Trust in the fields of science, ecology, conservation, heritage, literature and volunteering.
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07 December 2023
Around a quarter of food bought in the UK goes to waste, costing the average family about £700 a year. By reducing the amount of food we throw away, we can save money and reduce our carbon footprint.
That's why our waste and recycling team has put together some top tips to help you reduce food waste and save money over the Christmas and New Year period.
Planning is key:
- Planning meals in advance, checking what food you have in the kitchen and writing a shopping list means you can avoid buying food that won’t get used.
- Meal planning and cooking at home can be better for your health too, as you can control the ingredients that you use (less salt, less sugar etc)
The difference between use-by and best-before dates:
- Food is often safe to eat after its best-before so long as it passes the sight and smell test.
- Use-by dates are a safety measure, so be more careful.
Making good use of your freezer:
- Freezing food that is close to its use-by date means you can keep it for longer.
- Most foods freeze well, except for egg-based sauces and high water content vegetables.
- Foods should be allowed to cool before freezing and stored in a container or wrapped up to prevent freezer burn.
- Rice can be frozen so long as it is cooled quickly and frozen within an hour of cooking.
Using your leftovers:
- Leftover food can be kept in the fridge in a container and eaten another day or used to make another dish.
- As a general rule, leftovers stored in the fridge are ok to eat within 3 or 4 days.
- Visit the Love Food Hate Waste or BBC Good Food websites to find recipe ideas for your leftovers.
Batch cooking meals:
- Cooking double can reduce the amount of ingredients left over that might need to be thrown away.
- Batch cooking also saves time cooking and buying in bulk could save you money.
- Some people will batch cook certain base ingredients that can be incorporated into different meals throughout the week.
Naturally, some food is going to end up going to waste. Rather than throwing it away into the general waste, it can be recycled and turned into compost or green energy. You can order food recycling bins for free.
Find out more information about waste and recycling collections this Christmas
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A Northampton restaurant which compromised fire safety by repeatedly allowing workers to sleep on the premises has been fined for breaching a prohibition notice by the Fire Service.
Back in February, the Protection team at Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service received intelligence that the restaurant, Tummy Yummy Ltd, in Duston, was using the venue for some of its employees to stay in.
Alongside colleagues from West Northamptonshire Council, a Fire Protection Officer inspected the premises and found that store rooms in the basement had been converted into bedrooms. Not only this, but fire alarms were found to be faulty and escape and access routes were inadequate, raising the risk that occupants would not be warned if a fire started and could end up trapped in the building.
The restaurant was served with a prohibition notice by the Fire Service on February 14 banning people from sleeping on the premises, but a follow-up inspection three days later found evidence that the notice had already been breached.
This resulted in the owner, Xiong Yin, being charged with breaching the prohibition notice. Mr Yin pleaded guilty to the charge during a hearing at Northampton Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday (November 29). He was ordered to pay a £4,000 fine, a victim surcharge of £1,600 and costs of £750.
Following the hearing, Scott Richards, Head of Protection at Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “As a Fire Service we have to act quickly when we receive intelligence that premises may not be meeting the high standards that are required when it comes to fire safety.
“Primarily, our aim is to make sure that premises meet those standards so they can ensure the safety of both their customers and staff, and we will work with and help venues to make sure they get to that point.
“On this occasion however, we served a prohibition notice and it was then ignored. Fire safety should never be an afterthought, so if someone chooses to repeatedly ignore our concerns or fail to comply with our notices, then we have to send a strong message, and that is what we have done on this occasion.
“The Magistrates rightly recognised the risk that was being taken at this premises, and we hope this serves as a reminder to any business owners or landlords that fire safety is incredibly important to comply with.”
The Protection Team at Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service visited more than 1,000 premises in 2022 to help improve fire safety, and a recent change in fire safety legislation – affecting small and medium businesses such as restaurants and takeaways – means that some smaller businesses may need to take extra steps to ensure they are compliant.
Businesses can contact the Protection Team at Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service for specialist advice, and to receive a bespoke safety approach by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
They can also call 01604 797 000 and ask for Fire Protection or request a visit from Protection Officers by clicking here.
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Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold has launched a survey asking the public for their views on fire and police funding and the precepts for the coming year.
The fire and police precepts are the amount that Northamptonshire residents pay towards the fire service and policing through their council tax – together, both precepts amount to around 18% of the council tax a household pays.
Over the last four years, the support given by local people through the precept has enabled both Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service and Northamptonshire Police to invest in how they keep people safe, with more firefighters, more police officers and resources put into key areas of work.
Now Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold is asking people how much they are prepared to pay to keep resources for the fire service and policing at the current level.
Stephen Mold is recommending an increase of £5 a year in the fire precept for 2024/25, and of £15 a year in the policing precept for a Band D household, which is the amount of funding both services need to sustain both budgets at their current level and meet cost pressures.
He said: “I know how hard the cost-of-living crisis has been for people, and I don’t propose an increase in the fire and police precepts lightly, so I genuinely want to know how much people are prepared to pay towards their local emergency services.”
Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service has benefitted from investment over the last four years, including a major £10m programme of capital investment that has given firefighters the most modern equipment.
Eight new, next generation fire appliances and a 42-metre turntable ladder have joined the fleet, with four more on order, ensuring firefighters have the best possible equipment to keep the county safe. There are also more wholetime firefighters than there were in 2019, with an increase from 242 to 254.
It costs around £29m to supply fire and rescue services in Northamptonshire each year. Around 64% of that is raised through the council tax from residents, with 22% coming from business rates, and 14% from central government grants.
It also costs around £168 million to provide policing and victim services in Northamptonshire each year. Around 45% of that funding is raised through the council tax from county residents, with 55% coming from central government grants.
Northamptonshire Police now has 1,500 police officers, which is more than ever before. This has enabled the Force to put more resources into areas of policing that local people have said matter the most to them, including neighbourhood policing, roads policing and rural crime. There have also been significant investments into technology, including in systems like ANPR, to help keep the county safe.
Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold said: “Over the last seven years, I have worked hard to make sure that both Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service and Northamptonshire Police can deliver efficient, effective services. I need to know if people are prepared to invest further so that these investments can be sustained.”
The online survey takes around 15 minutes to complete and explains the impact that different council tax precept options would have on the fire and policing budgets.
You can complete the survey by clicking on the following link: https://www.research.net/r/PreceptConfidence2024-25
The survey closes on 14 January 2024 and the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner will then take his recommendations to a meeting of Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel in February.