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Caerphilly County Borough Council review Public Protection Enforcement annual report

Posted on : 09 Oct 2023

Members of Caerphilly County Borough Council have reviewed the Public Protection Enforcement annual report.

The Council’s Public Protection services comprise of Environmental Health, Trading Standards, Licensing, Community Safety, and Registrars.

Public Protection services have a major role in protecting, promoting and improving the health, safety and economic well-being of our communities.

During the year officers across Public Protection, including Trading Standards and Licensing, dealt with 55 complaints about premises supplying age-restricted products, along with visiting 58 retailers to advise them in detail of their responsibilities in relation to underage sales.

With the sale of illegal tobacco products is an increasing problem in both Caerphilly County Borough and throughout the UK, Trading Standards have continued to take action against known sellers of illegal tobacco. Throughout 2022/2023 Public Protection officers seizing products with a street value of over £21,000, including 0.7Kg of illegal Hand Rolling Tobacco and 9800 illegal cigarettes.

Environmental Health inspected 717 higher risk food businesses and also notedThere was an increase in Health and Safety breaches, with 71 warnings, 19 improvement notices and 4 prohibition notices issued by the Health and Safety Team throughout the year.

The Public Open Space CCTV system comprises over 170 cameras covering 28 town and village centres, with the CCTV Control Room has remaining open 24/7. The CCTV Control Room refers incidents and suspicious behaviour directly to the Police for their action. Descriptions provided by the Control Room can result in arrests being made at the time of the incident and in some cases Control Room Operators are able to guide Police Officers to offenders as a result of on-going monitoring after an incident.

During the year police asked for assistance in monitoring 65 threats of suicide, and footage of 459 incidents were provided to Gwent Police to assist with their investigations of criminal offences and anti-social behaviour.
There was also an increase in enforcement action being used to address individuals who persistently commit incidents of anti-social behaviour with 35 acceptable behaviour contracts being signed and 8 individuals being issued with a Civil Injunction at court by Community Safety Wardens.

Councillor Philippa Leonard, Cabinet Member for Planning & Public Protection said, “The figures included in this report highlight the ongoing commitment from our staff across Public Protection.

“Our Public Protection services will continue to play a major role in the safety, protection and economic well-being of our communities.”

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