Council Moves To Recoup More Costs For Environmental Health And Trading Standards Enforcement
Following a series of successful prosecutions, councillors in Neath Port Talbot have moved to reduce the public cost of delivering Environmental Health and Trading Standards services by recouping increased costs from liable parties for officer time.
The change will primarily assist the recovery of expenses accrued in enforcing the statutory regulation of health and safety, food safety offences, housing, statutory nuisance and pollution offences.
The charges paid by members of the public and businesses for pest control services will not be affected and the Environmental Health and Trading Standards (EHTS) department will continue to provide some services free of charge.
Increased fees and charges will apply for court legal fees, housing act notices, and the monitoring of private water supplies for commercial activity.
Recent high-profile examples of such enforcement action include the prosecution in November 2016 of a fish and chip shop owner in Sandfields for numerous offences relating to pest infestations and extremely poor levels of hygiene within the premises. A number of prosecutions have also been secured against takeaways in the county borough for falsely describing beef curry as lamb.
The Council is also frequently required to intervene against rogue landlords for not maintaining their properties to the required standard to be occupied by tenants.
In such cases the authority will seek to reclaim the costs of its intervention such as officers’ time spent attending court or conducting investigations, or securing the necessary improvements to restore a dwelling to a safe and habitable standard.
The increase will also apply for discretionary services which provide an additional income stream to the department, such as the production of specialised reports concerning Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), drainage and contaminated land.
The new charges were approved by Cabinet on Wednesday 18th January and will apply from 1st February 2017.
EHTS services which will remain free of charge include food hygiene advice for new food businesses; investigation of general environmental health matters such as noise nuisances or landlord and tenant disputes; investigation of infectious disease cases; community awareness-raising activities on trading standards issues; and air pollution monitoring.
Nicola Pearce, Head of Planning and Public Protection, said: “Neath Port Talbot Council has a strong record of securing prosecutions and these changes will enable the Council to sustain the Environmental Health and Trading Standards services that it provides to residents and businesses within the county borough by primarily targeting the cost of staff time incurred during enforcement action.”
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