THE owners  of a Wirral hotel have apologised to all “past, present and future guests” after they received a zero-star hygiene food rating.

The Leasowe Castle Hotel was handed the worst possible food hygiene rating following an inspection on August 19.

Officials uncovered a catalogue of serious issues at the venue including a major infestation of rodents, dirty and greasy equipment and out of date food.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Wirral Council revealed that the standard found at the time of the inspection were “wholly unacceptable due to the widespread activity of mice that was found”.

The report stated that the hotel “requested to proceed with a voluntary closure of the business”.

The report also said that the standard of cleaning at the premises was “poor” with a build-up of “dirt, dust debris and grease” underneath and behind equipment and behind and on top of shelving throughout the premises.

Rodent droppings were also found in containers of sauces and dry ingredients – including inside an open box of ready to eat croutons - as well of on shelving where cooking utensils were stored - an issue inspectors said chefs were aware was an “ongoing problem”.

A number of foods were also found past their use-by date including beef stew, BBQ sauce, caramelised onion, hummus, carrots, cauliflower, new potatoes, tomato soup, garlic bread, chocolate fondant, sticky toffee pudding, cheese, seabass, haddock, and burgers.

Following the damning findings, hotel owners released a statement apologising to its guests and that team members were “heavy hearted” with regards to the score.

The statement said: “Here at Leasowe Castle we would like to apologise to all of our past, present and future guests. We are sure that you have all by now seen the articles with regards to our new food hygiene rating.

“Firstly we would like to say sorry to everyone who we have let down with this current score, we are very disappointed that we have allowed this to happen to such an iconic local venue and can only apologise to those who we have let down.

“Secondly we would like to assure all future guests and event bookers at Leasowe Castle that we are currently investing heavily into new team training and food hygiene enforcements.

“So far, we have invested increased pest control around the property, enforced mandatory hygiene training for all staff in back and front of house and gained help from industry professionals to implement new routines into our kitchens.

“We want all of our guests to understand that we do take this matter extremely seriously and everyone on the team is heavy hearted with regards to our score.”