H&S in the kitchen

[Starfish38]

I work in the kitchen of a hospice that also has a cafe to generate income for the hospice. One of the kitchen doors leads directly to the cafe. Since I started working there just over 2 years ago, I have told people that they are not allowed into the kitchen. Partly for food hygiene reasons and partly for obvious health and safety reasons. We can't guarantee that there isn't some spill of something that they could slip on. It has now reached a ridiculous point where my manager has said quite clearly that the cafe volunteers can go through the kitchen to the store room to restock the cafe. That was today and today we had two of them, separately, walking through. There is a slightly longer way for them to access the store. The route through the small kitchen takes them past the dishwashing sink that can have water splashes on the floor, hot or sharp items on the side right beside the sink (not much more than a few inches to the side of the sink), and worst of all, right behind us while we stand in front of the cooker, frying, boiling, chopping. I have previously asked for a no entry sign, I asked the estates manager (who is leaving shortly) and H&S manager (who isn't there anymore) what could be done. They said they'd see about it. One suggestion was a key card so that only kitchen staff could use the door. The door is really only for kitchen staff access to the cafe to put food we prepare in it. The fact that the sink is right beside the door and there is only a bit of space to put dirty dishes on prior to washing suggests that they knew it should not be used for anybody else to enter the kitchen. If I lock the door, manager says it's against health and safety, but the risk of people not in appropriate clothing feeling that they can come in or pass through like that is a far more likely to cause an incident. Please advise.

[ULA]

I would suggest you raise this with your line manager or the HR manager given the 2 other people you reported this to have left or are about to leave.