THE owner of two takeaways which both received bad food inspection scores earlier this year, has said the issues have now been fixed and the new scores prove it.

Covingham Fish Bar and Ellendune Chinese Takeaway both scored zero out of five in inspections carried out by the council’s environmental health team.

However, in inspections carried out last week both restaurants were given four stars, much to the delight of owner Tai Leu.

The 45-year-old said he was shocked when he was first given the low score as he has been running the restaurants for more than 15 years and said food hygiene was something he took seriously.

“When people see somewhere has a score of zero they instantly think the place is full of rats or something,” he said.

“That is just not the case here. If it was then we would have been shut down straight away. It was a change in the law which got us marked down. We have always had two sinks which we prepare food for which has always been fine.

“Now the sink for preparing raw food needs to be completely separate. We also didn’t have the paperwork to keep a record of the temperature checks we carry out. We do the checks but were not recording them.

“I thought we might get a two star or something but never a zero.”

Tai says all the problems have now been fixed and this can be seen in the latest scores. Both have been given a rating of four, which is good.

Tai said: “We addressed the problem straight away and got a good score at the next inspection which I am pleased about.

“When people found out we had a zero there were a lot of really bad comments made online because people have thought the worst.

“Everything is now fine so hopefully people will now come back.”

The council’s environmental health team have said that if an establishment has a bad score following an inspection they work with businesses in a bid to help them improve before taking any further action.

A spokesman said: “In our experience the majority of food businesses want to achieve the hygiene standards, but they sometimes need help and advice to get there.

“Our approach is to inspect premises regularly, and if things need to improve, we work with the owners or managers to put the right working practices in place.

“It’s not in anyone’s interests to simply hit businesses with a stick if they aren’t quite up to scratch.

“If they are willing to do better, then that’s what we want to encourage, and it generally works to everyone’s benefit. We only prosecute as a last resort.”