A Sidmouth carvery has vowed its low food hygiene rating will not be in place for long, saying a recent inspection coincided with a boiler leak.

The Bowd Inn was rated 'one' for food hygiene by East Devon District Council (EDDC) after an environmental health officer conducted checks at random on April 9.

Restaurants, pubs and hotels - as well as cafes, takeaways and other places that sell or serve food - are rated from zero, where it is deemed urgent improvement is necessary, to five, very good, on their hygiene standards.

In the inspector's summary the pub received 'generally satisfactory' for food handling, 'improvement necessary' for the cleanliness and condition, and 'major improvement necessary' for its food safety management.

The pub has requested that inspectors return to revisit the rating, and says its current score was caused due to a heavy leak that occurred the day before the inspection occurred. In a statement on Facebook, the Bowd Inn said: "Over the last few days we have seen that some of you have been made aware of our food hygiene rating.

"Whilst we don't dream of trying to justify or defend this score, we would like to just say a few things on the matter.

"Firstly, we are currently awaiting a new inspection from the EHO which could be any day now. Please be assured that this rating will not stay for long.

"Also, just a day before the inspector turned up, which is always at random, we had incurred a heavy leak through a hole in the roof of our kitchen which was caused by our main boiler. As a result of this, our score does reflect this structural issue.

"The boiler has now been replaced and the hole in the roof has been fixed.

"You are also more than welcome to come into the kitchen itself anytime you are passing by to hopefully put any doubts you may have about dining with us still to rest.

"On the matter of food hygiene itself, we have had just one complaint of apparent food poisoning in the last five years which actually turned out to be a case of the Norovirus.

"We love Sidmouth and the fantastic customer base we have built up over the last five years and are doing everything we can to make sure that this doesn't effect that."