Warning over rat-infested farm

Mr Knipe won the milkman of the year competition

Environmental health officials have decided not to prosecute an award-winning Cumbrian milkman, who ran a rat-infested chicken farm.

Environmental health officers from South Lakeland District Council have instead issued a caution to David Knipe from Levens.

Mr Knipe was cautioned for 13 offences that took place at the chicken processing plant at Scarbrae Poultry farm.

The plant was closed down in August after it was said to pose "an imminent danger to health".

The caution does not affect Mr Knipe's milk operation.

In a report to South lakeland District Council, Brenda Collins, one of the health officials who visited the processing operation, said conditions were the worst she had seen at food premises in 26 years.

A spokesman for South Lakeland District Council said the decision not to prosecute Mr Knipe was "not a soft option".

Farmers' markets

He said a record would be kept of Mr Knipe's caution in its central register of convictions.

The decision means Mr Knipe, named milkman of the year 2003, can no longer sell meat at farmers' markets.

The closure followed checks by environmental health officers, which found an infestation of rats, structural problems and "an accumulation of filth, feathers and extraneous matter".

The plant housed several hundred barn chickens.