OXFORD’S Randolph Hotel has been hit with another damning hygiene report after inspectors found mouse droppings behind its Cartoon Bar.

The business, which recently changed ownership, was visited by Oxford City Council’s health team on December 5 and is its first inspection since Graduate Hotels took over.

A catalogue of cleanliness and pest issues were discovered and have led to the business being given a two-star rating, meaning ‘improvement necessary’.

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It comes just a year after the hotel first dropped down to two stars following a surprise hygiene inspection prompted by food poisoning allegations from its Acanthus restaurant.

The Randolph was given a top rating of five stars after a revisit in May but standards have dropped once again.

This time the hotel’s kitchen, bin area, basement including walk in fridge and freezer, wash up and dry store, Morse and Cartoon Bars and breakfast service area were all looked at.

The report said: “Rat droppings were evident on the floor of the dry store and mouse droppings were found behind the bar in the Cartoon Bar."

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It told the hotel to contact pest control 'immediately' and said staff needed to be 'extra vigilant' in sanitising work surfaces and pest proof containers for food in the dry store were needed.

It added: "Small flies were noted in the basement wash-up area."

The report said there were gaps in the dry store area which need to be fixed to prevent pests getting in, as well as cracked floor tiles in the kitchen and peeling paintwork in the delivery corridor.

Inspectors also said there was 'a strong drain smell' in the ground floor of the hotel, which 'indicates an issue with the existing drainage system' and needed to be looked into.

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Other issues included a cross contamination risk from areas like the underside of work counters being 'unacceptably dirty' and a 'large amount 'of food being stored on the floor of the walk in freezer.

Last month Graduate Hotels, owned by Adventurous Journeys (AJ) Capital Partners, announced that it had acquired the Macdonald Randolph Hotel in Beaumont Street.

The inspection report noted this change in ownership, stating: “You’ve recently been taken over by a new company therefore the details on your food registration are out of date."

The Randolph Hotel was contacted for comment but did not respond before the paper went to print.