UNRUFFLE those feathers - KFC branches in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole have reopened.

Chicken lovers across Dorset will be flocking to their favourite fast food restaurants after a four-day shutdown.

Venues in the Lansdowne, Bournemouth and Barrack Road, Christchurch are open as of 5.15pm today. Poole's branches at the Dolphin Centre, Tower Park and Wessex Gate and in Ashley Road are also open.

The shop in the Triangle currently remains closed.

The bulk of the fried chicken giant's 900 branches failed to open on Saturday due to a shortage of chicken, which the chain attributed to "teething problems" with a new distributor.

"We've brought a new delivery partner onboard, but they've had a couple of teething problems - getting fresh chicken out to 900 restaurants across the country is pretty complex!" KFC said.

"We won't compromise on quality, so no deliveries has meant some of our restaurants are closed and others are operating a limited menu, or shortened hours.

"We know that this might have inconvenienced some of you over the last few days, and disappointed you when you wanted your fried chicken fix - we're really sorry about that."

Earlier today, it was revealed that the new storage hub at the centre of KFC's chicken delivery problems has not yet been granted the registration it legally requires to operate.

Rugby Borough Council said the cold storage facility used by DHL, which took over KFC deliveries last week, had been operating since February 14 and the council was hoping to issue conditional approval on Thursday.

A council spokeswoman said: "There is no requirement for the DHL cold storage facility to be licensed, but it does need to be registered. We have now received the relevant documentation and expect to be able to issue conditional approval tomorrow.

"Officers visited the facility yesterday afternoon and were satisfied with all of DHL's food safety processes including temperature control, date coding, food handling and associated record keeping.

"They didn't observe any out of date chicken or other foods."