WALTHAMSTOW: Yet another filthy restaurant closed down (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAMSTOW: Yet another filthy restaurant closed down

4:20pm Friday 19th September 2008

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INFESTATION, grease and grime were among the list of failings at yet another filthy restaurant closed down by environmental health officers.

Moon Pizza in High Street, Walthamstow, was inspected on September 15 when senior environmental health officer Pip Broad served owner Muhammed Ashury with an emergency hygiene prohibition notice.

Speaking at Waltham Forest Magistrates’ Court, Mrs Broad said: “I visited the shop as I had had a complaint from someone who had seen rats jumping from a window.

“There was a huge pile of rubbish at the back of the shop and you could see where rats had been clawing at the black bags.”

The Guardian received reports from worried workers at nearby Oxfam who had seen vermin around the premises as long ago as August 11, and the council promised it would investigate.

Action was taken against the restaurant a month later when Mrs Broad visited the premises with environmental health enforcement officer Mark Douglas.

During the inspection, the shop was also discovered to be infested with mice and droppings were found near food containers, as well as covering bags intended for takeaway food.

“We found that the premises was filthy – everything was sticky and greasy to the touch,” Mrs Broad said.

“My colleague just wiped a cloth over a surface and all this filth came off.”

The restaurant has now been served with an emergency hygiene prohibition order, but when Mr Douglas visited Moon Pizza on September 16, he could not see evidence of a clean-up operation.

Moon Pizza is one of a long list of restaurants to be closed down this year after conditions inside were found to be so unhygienic that they presented a public health risk.

Subz Sandwich Bar in Wood Street was also closed on September 15 after it was found to be without hot water or proper washing facilities and food was not being stored at low enough temperatures.

It was one of a minority to be closed without evidence of vermin. About 95 per cent of closures are enforced because of infestation by mice, rats or coackroaches.

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