A shopping centre has been slammed by some of its own tenants after they were slapped with poor hygiene ratings.

Seven businesses selling food across The Mall, Maidstone, have been downgraded following claims of mice infestation and poor building maintenance.

Last month, KentOnline reported how Iceland was forced to shut for nearly three weeks after being handed an emergency prohibition notice.

It came after an inspection by the council’s food and safety team revealed an “active” and “widespread mice infestation”.

Now, Italian restaurant and cafe Franco’s has been forced to close for the same reason. It is not clear when it will be able to resume trading.

Five other shops have also been affected - McDonald’s, Subway, Cakebox and B&M have all been given one-star hygiene ratings.

Meanwhile, family-run butchers, House of Meat, has been handed a two.

Now business owners are hitting out at centre bosses for problems they claim are the reasons behind being downgraded, such as poor maintenance and low hygiene standards.

A Cakebox spokesman said there has been an ongoing issue with pests, which was only pointed out to them when the environmental health officer visited.

They said: “We have never seen any evidence within our shop.

“We take due diligence very seriously and are serviced frequently by our own independent pest control company.

“The environmental health officer asked us to put extra precautions in place which we have.

“We are awaiting a revisit and are very confident we will revert to a five which we have always held.”

House of Meat, which is owned by couple Alexandra Bulgaru and Roni Pupla, has echoed similar concerns.

The unit had been empty for a year but was previously home to P&R Italian shop.

The husband and wife, who are first-time business owners, signed the lease last July before officially taking over in September.

However, they say they wouldn’t have signed if they were aware of the issues with the centre.

Alexandra said: “We were kind of in a rush. We didn’t investigate the shop itself and that was our mistake.

“When we took it, it was in a disastrous condition - it took us around two months to paint it and get it up to from nothing.”

In October, they had their first health and safety inspection and were awarded five stars.

But in February they received a visit from environmental health after the council received multiple complaints from people claiming they had seen mice.

Alexandra said: “She started the investigation and upstairs there is a dishwasher we had never used or touched.

“She asked for permission to move the dishwasher and behind it was a big hole in the wall that was covered with cardboard and some tape all around it.

“She took that away and there were mice traps and many droppings which you could see were old.”

In the hygiene report, House of Meat was found to be “very good” in hygienic food handling, and “generally satisfactory” in the management of food safety, but under the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building they were rated “improvement necessary”.

After the inspector had also found some holes in the unit, the couple closed the shop for a few days and sealed everything as they were advised to - even though they faced breaching their contract.

Alexandra added: “The structure is not my problem, it’s The Mall’s. I have it in our lease to not make any modifications to the walls and all the other businesses will have the same thing in theirs.

“We spoke with the management and I said I will cover them. The operations manager told me ‘maybe we can help’ but it never happened.

“I have a very big issue with the management here. I am paying a lot of money in rent and service charges.”

The Mall had been owned and managed by Capital & Regional from 2014.

But in September the property company accepted a takeover from NewRiver for £147 million.

The firm became the new owners of the centre in December when the deal was completed.

The shopping complex in Pad’s Hill is home to more than 70 stores and eateries and is anchored by Next, Boots, B&M and Matalan.

In June, its estimated market value was £31,300,000 and as of last June, the annual receivable rent was £5,132,618.

Cllr David Naghi, who is the cabinet member for community cohesion and safety, says the council is aware of issues at the shopping centre and has a meeting with the new owners next week.

He said: “It’s Maidstone for goodness sake, the county town. We should be setting the standard.

“It is our number-one shopping mall in Maidstone - it’s the main destination for our buses.

“There is a history of the previous owners doing nothing. They neglected it.

“What we need is the new owners to get in there and do something about it.”

KentOnline raised the mice infestation and maintenance issues with NewRiver and asked if and how they will be addressing the problems.

A spokesperson said: “NewRiver is making great headway in integrating the centre into the wider portfolio.

“NewRiver is fully committed to supporting the centre management team and our occupiers at The Mall to maintain rigorous hygiene standards, with the health and safety of the public and operators being of utmost priority.”

Meanwhile, the remaining shops, including Franco’s, must await reassessment in the hope of raising their hygiene ratings.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s said: “Hygiene and cleanliness are of the utmost importance to us and once we became aware of pest activity, we proactively closed the restaurant to complete a full sanitisation.

“We have worked closely with our pest control company and the local authority to implement a number of measures to ensure the high standards of hygiene our customers expect are maintained.”

A spokesperson for B&M added: “We pride itself on high store standards and we are sorry these were not met on this occasion.

“We are working quickly to address the points raised by the environmental health officer and implement any necessary changes.”

Subway was approached for comment but did not respond by the time of publication.