Fifteen of the 19 food outlets at the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, UK, were found to be unhygienic after a visit by environmental health inspectors.

However, Alton Towers claimed that eight of those 15 were franchises and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, which carried out the inspection, said that the “vast majority of faults can be readily addressed”.

The worst of the outlets was the independently operated KFC Katanga, which did not meet legal requirements for hygiene.

A spokesperson for Alton Towers said: “With respect to the food units on site that are directly operated by us, there are a few minor areas in which we can improve and action has already been taken to ensure we do so before we reopen in March.

“We are of course disappointed that one of the independently operated franchise units has had issues highlighted and we will be discussing these with the appropriate management to ensure they comply with requirements outlined.”