Merry Hill Subway branch ordered to remain closed after mouse droppings found near serving area

A branch of Subway has been ordered to stay closed until it cleans up its act after health inspectors found evidence of mouse droppings all over the store. The store in Merry Hill Shopping Centre will remain closed until a further inspection has been made and the court also ordered Sirtek to pay £1,340,31 in costs. Stewart Wright, prosecuting for Dudley Council said: "The pest control inspectors said there was no fresh evidence of mice activity nor any fresh droppings around the store. But there were a number of areas where it would have been easy for a mice to get into the store and it was obvious from what was found by our inspectors that this had been the case."

Magistrates granted the prohibition order in accordance with regulation 8(2) of the Food Safety Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013.

A spokesperson for Merry Hill, said: “The health and safety of anyone who visits or works at Merry Hill is always our top priority and amongst many measures we have in place, we have a strict policy covering this particular area – going above and beyond in our approach to any pest activity.

“We work closely with our retailer community and Dudley Environmental Health to ensure the centre has high standards of safety and hygiene. We’re working with Subway to help resolve this isolated incident swiftly and want to reassure our customers that across the centre we have strict measures in place to ensure the safety of our visitors.

“The Subway restaurant is currently closed, while this issue is resolved, and both are brought up to our rigorous standards.”