COUNCIL bosses in Burnley did a swift U-turn after the town’s largest hotel was told it had failed a food hygiene test over a number of out-of-date yoghurts.

New hygiene scores were published for the first time yesterday for nearly 1,000 premises in Burnley and Pendle.

But a single star rating out of a possible five for the Holiday Inn Express in Burnley was upgraded to four stars after the Lancashire Telegraph began making inquiries.

Senior councillors expressed their surprise at the controversy.

Surprised hotel bosses blamed some out-of-date yoghurts for the assessment, which would normally mean “major improvements” were necessary.

Kim Eivind Krohn, the Holiday Inn Express manager, said until yesterday the hotel had not been notified of their one-star score – the result of an inspection in June last year.

But after Lancashire Telegraph inquires the Pendle Way hotel was revisited by environmental health inspectors yesterday afternoon and awarded a new rating of four stars, or ‘good’.

Mr Krohn said: “Despite the score being posted on the Food Standards Agency website, no correspondence was entered into between the local environmental health officer and the hotel following the visit, some 12 months ago.

“On the day of the audit, the officer discovered some yoghurts had passed their use by date by a few days.

“These were immediately disposed of and measures put in place to avoid a reoccurrence.

“With this one exception, the hotel scored 100 per cent for cleanliness and hygiene. But by the strict application of the scoring system the hotel has been rated as one out of five.”

He said the hotel regularly achieved high ratings for food hygiene inspections conducted on behalf of their parent company.

The £7million hotel, in Gannow, which at 102 rooms is the town’s largest, is less than three years old.

Mr Krohn believes that the scoring system should more accurately reflect the standards of the premises.

Council leader Coun Charlie Briggs said: “This amazes me. I was in there a few weeks ago for a function and the food was excellent.”

Coun Mark Townsend said: “I am surprised that this has been published and they didn’t go to the Holiday Inn first. They could have saved themselves all this commotion.”