A hotel manager has said he is not surprised but not worried either after receiving a one-star food hygiene rating, with changes already made.

Officials said the management of food safety at Dartford's Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel needed "major improvement", but Andy Purkis said it was only a matter of fixing a few wall tiles.

The boss has been in charge there for the past five years. It had its latest hygiene inspection in March and that was published this month.

The High Street bed and breakfast was bought by hospitality group South Coast Inns in 2017, two years after its former owners Tattershall Castle Group fell into administration.

Despite the new ownership, a letter by the inspector in March read the business "fell well short of the standards required by the regulations and the council may take formal actions if improvements are not achieved quickly."

The document stressed the urgency in upgrading the structure and cleanliness of the building.

It read: "In particular, the structure of the premises is poor in some areas and this affects the ability to clean properly. It can also provide access to and harbourage for pests such as mice and rats. There have been reports of rat activity in the area of the laundry room and therefore structural issues that may relate to rat ingress need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency."

Aspects such as the handling of food – such as preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage – were marked as "improvement necessary". The structure of the establishment, including cleanliness, layout, condition of structure, lighting, ventilation, and facilities, were marked the same. The review read for both aspects: "Some major non-compliance with statutory obligations – more effort required to prevent fall in standards."

But it was the confidence in management, which analyses factors such as the company's track record and complaint history, which was categorised as "major improvement necessary" by the report.

It read: "Varying record of compliance. Poor appreciation of hazards and control measures. No food safety management system."

Mr Purkis said he was not surprised by the rating, and said the reason behind the poor evaluation was merely structural and not related to the quality or cleanliness of their services.

He said: "The management of food safety itself is fine. The inspector was quite happy with all of that because he checked the temperature records and everything else and it was all up to date.

"The problem is probably to do with the fact that the tiles were coming off nearby where the guys cook, and that could cause a problem of cross-contamination.

"We've made all those changes now, including the doors, and all that’s missing is the annual maintenance on the extractor fan system.

"So, hopefully, we'll arrange another inspection as soon as possible and raise that rating to a three, or even a four."

The manager said he wasn't worried about any impact the one-star label could bring, as the hotel had been busier than ever.

He said: "We know we had a low rating, but we just had our busiest week since reacting from the pandemic. That’s a fair indication of what the locals think about what’s going on here."

Mr Purkis also explained his customers were aware there were no hygiene problems in the kitchen and those who questioned it "are more than welcome to enter the establishment and have a look for themselves".

He added: "Yes we’ve got one star, but we embrace it, move forward and we get better.

"But we’re happy to open our doors and show everyone we’re not hiding anything."

Dartford council confirmed the changes had been made.

For more information on the review, click here.