A "extremely proud” hotel owner has praised his staff after they safely evacuated guests when a fire broke out in the hotel’s kitchen in the early hours of the morning.

Fire fighters were called to the White Hart Hotel in Newland Street just after 3.30am on Saturday.

Members of staff roused guests staying in the hotel and helped to get them to a safe point outside the hotel after alerting the fire service.

Owner Dave Arnott said: “It turned out to be a smouldering bin and the smoke set the fire alarms off.

“The staff evacuated all the hotel guests, there were about 15 to 20 of them, to a fire point out in the car park.

“I am extremely proud of the way my staff acted, they did as they were trained and got everyone out safely.

“If it had been a proper fire, it goes to show that training does pay off."