Issue - meetings

The report of the Executive Manager – Neighbourhoods

The Environmental Health Manager delivered a presentation on the Council’s Environmental Health Service and its various enforcement functions including environmental protection, community safety, food safety, health and safety at work, and private sector housing – and  the Council’s licensing function but which was reported to a separate committee.

It was noted that the enforcement work undertaken by the Environmental Health team operated underneath the Council’s corporate enforcement policy and was guided by national guidelines and statutes as well as locally perceived risk to the public. These functions fall into statutory (food safety, nuisance complaints, health and safety at work, HMOs, and air quality) and discretionary services (enviro-crime, empty homes, some elements of community safety). The Board were informed that the majority of the work undertaken by the team was based around advice and education, enforcement was usually a last resort.

            The Environmental Health Manager reported on a number of successful flytipping prosecutions recently but reminded the Board that to prosecute there must be clear linking evidence such as video footage or identifiable documents in the flytipped material. There had also been successful fixed penalty notices issued for graffiti and flyposting. This prompted a question about the value of a fixed penalty notice which was duly answered.

It was noted that there were 818 food premises in the Borough and inspections were based on risk. A Councillor mentioned a television programme he had seen recently where food premises were falsifying their certificates. The Environmental Health Manager stated that this would be an issue of fraud and would be investigated by the police. He explained that the public was encouraged to check ratings online where the Council controlled the certificates but that he had not heard of any instance of this taking place within the Borough. The Environmental Health Manager told the Board that the Food Hygiene Inspection Scheme was not mandatory but that there were calls within his profession to make it such. The Chairman asked for an action to be recorded requesting officers to draft a letter on behalf of the Board adding their support to the campaign to make food inspections mandatory.

The Environmental Health Manager informed the Board about the Primary Authority scheme and explained how this worked. Rushcliffe was now the Primary Authority for Boots and Jury’s Inn nationwide meaning that these companies could access assured independent advice for incidents of food safety and health and safety wherever they happen in the country.

A question was asked regarding the Council’s role in ensuring correct food labelling with respect to food allergies and was told that this was the responsibility of the trading standards team at the County Council. The Board were concerned that the number of fixed penalty notices issued for dog fouling and was not higher given the extent of the problem within the Borough. The Environmental Health Manager explained that two members of the team covered both dog and pest control and that in the case of dog fouling it was very difficult to catch  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17