That takes the biscuit!

Now elf ’n’ safety has banned WI from baking cakes and pastries for patients in hospice

FOR decades, members of the Women’s Institute have been baking homemade cakes for hospice patients and their visitors.

But not any more. This long- established tradition has now been banned – under health and safety regulations.

Council inspectors have told bosses at one hospice that only baked goods from registered and approved establishments can be served.

That means that the delicious cakes and pastries donated by WI members must be turned away unless the volunteer bakers submit their kitchens to rigorous checks.

Managers at the Loros hospice in Leicester say their hands are tied. Spokesman Helen Williams said: ‘We did receive an inspection from environmental health and if we don’t comply with their report then we could risk jeopardising our own food rating certificate.’

Glenice Wignall of Leicestershire and Rutland Women’s Institute said: ‘It is all very sad. We started baking cakes for Loros when they set up. Our groups took it in turns to bake but now that will all have to stop.’ A member of the Cossington WI said: ‘This is health and safety gone mad. No one has ever had a problem. They freeze the cakes and pastries and use them to give the dying patients and their visitors a lovely treat. It’s awful – upsetting and penalising everyone for no good reason.’

In a statement in the regional WI magazine, the apologetic kitchen manager at Loros said: ‘ We cannot accept further donations of goods that have been baked in someone’s home kitchen. We can only accept cakes that have been baked at a registered address.

‘I am sorry if this means the baking has to stop as our patients have loved the cakes and pies that you have so kindly donated. Thank your members for baking in the past.’ Loros – Leicestershire and Rutland Organisation for the Relief of Suffering – runs 29 charity shops and has a team of 1,500 volunteers who help to fund and run the hospice, which cares for 2,500 people each year.

A Leicester City Council spokesman said yesterday: ‘The most recent food hygiene inspection of Loros rated the establishment as five, the highest rating possible.

‘However, to comply with current food safety regulations, the cake maker that supplies the snack bar must be registered with the council as a food establishment. This process is simple, free of charge and registration cannot be refused.’

IN Roman times, crowds in coliseums bayed for blood as Christians were thrown to the lions. Fast forward 2,000 years and while that barbarism is long gone, the ‘sport’ of goading vulnerable victims for public entertainment lives on.

take the demeaning spectacle that is ItV’s the Jeremy Kyle show. the eponymous host (salary: £2million a year) delves into the lives of the desperate and degenerate.

the show revels in tawdry tales of ‘ broken Britain’ – adultery, dysfunctional relationships and family feuds. Often, the most troubled are lured into parading their psychological frailties. Many are shamed in front of a howling studio audience.

that was the fate of 62-year-old depression-sufferer stephen Dymond. Distraught at being confronted over alleged infidelity, he apparently committed suicide.

Little wonder an eminent psychiatrist brands the show a ‘ theatre of cruelty’! ItV insists it safeguards guests’ wellbeing. But should that be taken with a pinch of salt?

Instead of counting viewing figures, isn’t it time unprincipled executives discovered their moral compass and for once counted the human cost? NO ONE could quibble at preventing threats to patients at a Leicester hospice. But are Women’s Institute homemade cakes really a health and safety hazard? Yes, say council busybodies, because they aren’t baked at a registered site. so patients are denied a delicious treat. talk about being one sandwich short of a picnic!