A BREAKFAST cafe named after Sir Roger Bannister is celebrating after it leapt from a one-star food hygiene rating to four-stars.

Bannister's at Iffley Road sits just half a mile from the spot where the runner became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes in May 1954.

The business reached a low ebb after scoring the single star rating in June of last year.

But following a fresh unannounced inspection the cafe has now pulled up its socks and been given a glowing report from Oxford City Council's environmental health officers.

Cafe owner Carlo Salamone, 39, said that he was thrilled with the result and that he had taken all of the comments from inspectors on board.

He said: "It was just devastating when we got a one-star rating. It was naivety and I was just devastated.

"After that we worked really hard to get the place up to four stars, it has just been a lot of little things mostly that we had to do.

"We didn't have a great deal of money when we started out and we knew that there were some things that were not being done quite right so I worked on that."

Hygiene bosses had slammed the cafe for having out-of-date soup, as well as black pudding opened for over a week.

Mr Salamone said the kitchen had since been 're-jigged' and the menu had also been changed to accommodate the inspector's concerns.

He has also now completed a recognised food hygiene course following concerns the online course he had previously followed was not sufficient.

He said: "When the inspector came back she was delighted and went through everything and it is mostly cosmetic things to get us up to a five-star rating now.

"It is a massive relief to have this rating back up and they were very helpful.

"With the food hygiene people they gave us a lot of things which we needed to change and they were absolutely delighted when they came back."

Mr Salamone said the changes were implemented quickly and it only took them two weeks to put the necessary adjustments into force, but he had to wait three months before inspectors were able to come back and give the cafe a second chance.

Since opening in March last year he said that the business has been going well and added that he now has ambitious plans to serve pizza and obtain an alcohol licence.

He said that the licensing application to serve alcohol had begun and will be ultimately determined by Oxford City Council.