A KFC restaurant in New Malden has been told it needs major improvement to its food hygiene after an inspector found dirty utensils, an odour and a “very poor level of cleanliness”.

The restaurant, in High Street, was inspected by Kingston and Sutton’s shared environment service on August 15 and received one of the worst possible ratings.

Inspectors rate establishments from zero, meaning "urgent improvement is necessary", to five, meaning standards are “very good”.

The restaurant received one out of five, which means "major improvement is necessary".

The report asked KFC to pest-proof the back door, make sure staff wear clean protective clothing and also that they wash their hands between tasks.

Next to one instruction the inspector has reminded them “good personal hygiene is very important”.

An odour, especially in the back of the restaurant and in the defroster, was mentioned, and that it was “indicative of poor cleaning”.

Thorough cleans of the staff room, rear yard and toilet were requested, as were several other repairs.

The inspector observed “standards throughout are extremely poor”.

Since then, a council representative has been to the restaurant, but a spokeswoman stressed this was not another inspection.

Manager Naren Subaharen said: “We’ve had another visit. We already did our hard work. Last time they spoke about cleanliness, and we got cleaning staff to come in and double clean.

“We made changes to the cooking station. We did more than we were expected to do following the report.”

Another requirement was for the five rating sticker to be taken down from the front window, and when Surrey Comet visited this week there was no sticker visible with the new rating.

It is not a legal requirement to display Food Hygiene Rating stickers in England.

The branch is run as a franchise by Amsric Foods ltd, rather than directly by KFC owners Yum.