HYGIENE inspectors found cooking equipment “ingrained with grease and dirt” and an electric fly killer full of dead flies in the kitchen of a city hotel.

However, the manager of Severn View Hotel now claims the kitchen has not been used to make food for guests for years – though he does plan to start serving breakfast.

We reported yesterday how the Newport Street hotel’s manager Indy Singh had assured us he simply needed an up-to-date hygiene book, which details cleaning regimes of staff, after inspectors rated it one out of five.

However, the Worcester News has now been sent the full report by Worcestershire Regulatory Authority, which lists a catalogue of food safety issues.

Mr Singh has now said it is a “dormant” space and is only used to make his food but no-one else’s – though because it’s on the premises, it is automatically inspected every year.

The food hygiene inspection report does state that a documented food safety management system needs to be adopted, as does an allergen management system.

On top of the fly killer requiring emptying and cooking equipment needing cleaning, further cleaning is needed under fridges and work surfaces.

Staff’s personal food needs removing and putting in labelled containers and obsolete equipment needs taking out.

Mr Singh also needs to “remove obsolete equipment from the back-yard area to minimise potential for pest harbourage”. And, finally, to repair a tap to the hand basin and provide soap and hygienic hand drying materials.

Mr Singh said: “We don’t do food here. We used to do food years ago, but it just was not cost effective. Because it’s on the premises it’s classed as a working kitchen.”

He said following the inspection on April 1 and a follow-up visit a few days later: “We have gone through it with a fine-tooth comb and now that I know what I have got to go get [the hygiene book], I will get it."

He later told us he plans to start using the kitchen again to allow the hotel to serve breakfasts and asked inspectors what he needed to do to get it up to scratch.

“Four or five years ago we served tapas and it was always five stars. If you are not using something, it’s sitting there dormant and not getting the necessary treatment.”

A city council spokesman said: “At no stage were officers advised the kitchen was not in use.”

The Worcester News understands that customers are already offered breakfast when they stay at the hotel as well as a bar and coffee lounge.

Mr Singh had initially told us a new book was needed after a kitchen ‘revamp’ meant the system was now 'out-of-date' but now says what he meant was he'd paid for a deep-clean after the inspection.

And that there's been no hygiene book in use for years.