Agenda item

Councillor Keith Humphries, Cabinet Representative for Public Health and Protection Services, will give a brief overview of that area of responsibility, followed by a chance to ask questions.

o   Public health

o   Community safety

o   Environmental health

o   Trading standards

o   Licensing

o   Emergency planning

Councillor Keith Humphries, Cabinet member for Public Health and Protection Services, outlined his areas of responsibility. He explained that his portfolio was both wide and unusual and that a great deal of his time was spent working with partners outside the Council.

Current areas of Councillor Humphries work include:

·       Community Safety Partnership and Consumer Direct – currently working with the Transition Board to bring public health back into local government. Services included are breast screening, bowel screening, anti smoking schemes and tackling teenage pregnancy and obesity.

• Health & Safety – areas of work include animal health, animal movement passports and planning for the Olympics. This year work is underway to reduce the number of unintentional injuries to young children, such as scaulds and burns.

• Protection Services – Including community safety and domestic abuse. There were 2,058 reported incidents  of domestic abuse in Wiltshire in 2010, however with only 1 in 5 incidents being reported, the true figure could be much higher. The cost of dealing with the reported incidents in 2010 was £19 million.

• Food Safety – The star rating on the doors of restaurants is to be replaced with a new scheme. Wiltshire Council has won an award of £42,000 to implement the new system which is much more hygiene based.

• Environmental Health - The care of the sewers, would be moving over to the Water Authority.

• Trading Standards – Investigating internet scams, current work is underway to investigate a scam where fake vodka is being produced and sold around the county. This vodka contains high amounts of anti-freeze and is highly dangerous when consumed.

• Olympics – Responsible for Team Wiltshire, the delivery of the Olympics in Wiltshire and the nostalgia after the event. Nominations for torch bearers can still be put forward. Anyone can be nominated however the team are keen to hear about unsung heroes aged between 12 – 25 years.

Questions and comments were then taken from the room, these included:

·       Councillor Devine had contacted Trading Standards for an elderly resident who was concerned over fuel prices. They had looked into the situation the same day. He felt they were doing a good job.

• Are there any plans for development at Thorney Down Transfer Station. Answer: There is a time limited planning consent at that site which expires in 2016. There are no plans for development at that site.

Information received from Tracy Carter following the meeting:

Thorney Down Waste Transfer Station is included in our Proposed Submission Draft Waste Site Allocations document which was consulted on during 13 June - 8 Aug.

The site has been assessed and is considered potentially suitable, in principle, for composting and inert waste recycling/transfer facilities however to my knowledge no new planning application has been submitted.

An online version of the document is available to view here: http://consult.wiltshire.gov.uk/portal/spatial_planning/waste_sites/wastesitesdpd

A report on the Development Plan Document Waste Site Paper will be considered by full Council at the meeting to be held on 8 November 2011.

• How does the new food safety scheme impact on current food safety certificates? Answer: Councillor Humphries did not know, and undertook to find out and feed the information back to the Board.

Information provided by Councillor Humphries following the meeting:

There is a link to the old scheme/certificates, in fact it is a very similar scheme; all scores are based on the same criteria (food hygiene practices, structure and confidence in management), the only differences are the appearance in window stickers/certificates, the use of the national website and businesses will be able to request a re-visit. The Food Standards Agency are also looking to pass legislation which makes it mandatory for LA’s to join the scheme, make it mandatory for businesses to display the certificate and to allow LA’s to charge for revisits (not date yet).

Businesses will be transferred to the new scheme using historic data, for the majority this will mean if they are 3 stars now they will be transferred to the new scheme as 3 stars. For a minority their score may change due to the new banding, but they will only go up and not down which is reassuring.

·       Does drug abuse come under your portfolio and if so what is being done about it? Answer: Yes it is and there is a drug and alcohol policy which was approved by the Community Safety Partnership.

·       At Pound Bottom Site where there has been leakage, it is thought that they aim to import soil to cover up the leakage, using lorries to bring the spoil in, would this cause a environmentalhealth issue? Answer: Tracy Carter agreed to look into this matter and provide an answer to the Board.

Information received from Tracy Carter following the meeting:

The Pound Bottom Landfill Site now lies outside Wiltshire’s administrative boundary, falling within the New Forest National Park.

The Park Authority regulate the planning permission(s) for the site. The last contact we had was: Lucie Cooper, Monitoring and Enforcement Officer, New Forest National Park Authority, South Efford House, Milford Road, Lymington, SO41 0JD – Telephone: 01590 646628.

Any ‘leakage’ problem would fall to the Environment Agency. The EA generally prefer contact, in the first instance, via its National Customer Contact Centre; PO Box 544, Rotherham, S60 1BY. Telephone - 0845 9 333 111.

• Is the Olympic route defined yet? Answer: The route will be announced in November, however the night before the torch reaches Salisbury it will be in Reading and the morning after Salisbury it will be in Weymouth.

The Chairman thanked Councillor Humphries for attending the meeting. He added that the format of the agenda had been changed, as a result of the parish council liaison meeting where it had been established that people wanted the Cabinet representative to have a bigger slot on the agenda.