Issue - meetings

That the report be received.     

The Chief Officer (Planning and Environment) introduced a report to provide an update on Trading Standards Collaborative Projects.  He invited Sian Jones, Public Protection Manager, to present the report.

The Public Protection Manager explained that the purpose of the report was to provide an overview of the on-going areas of work and to highlight those areas of work where regional partnership working had been found to be beneficial.  She provided background information and reported on the main considerations, as detailed in the report, concerning the fostering of a collaborative approach to service delivery.  The Public Protection Manager explained that in terms of future delivery it was recommended that Flintshire continued to work alongside its regional partners; this would improve service resilience and ability to deal with cross border issues. 

The Public Protection Manager explained that the  work undertaken by the North Wales Trading Standards Services was also consistent with the ethos of the recently published Local Government White Paper ‘Resilient and Renewed’ where reference was made to the possibility of a regional service.  She commented that whilst project work lent itself o regionalisation other areas required a local delivery.  The Public Protection Manager introduced the Senior Trading Standards Officer and invited him to report on the Buy With Confidence scheme which had been put together by a partnership of Local Authority Trading Standards Services in response to concerns about ‘rogue traders’.  The Senior Trading Standards Officer gave an overview of the Scheme and explained that it provided consumers with a list of businesses which had given their commitment to trading fairly.  He reported that the regional launch of the initiative would be held on 15 March 2017 at Eiras Park.

Councillor Brian Lloyd raised the issue of false advertising and false contact details which were used by ‘rogue traders’ on vehicles and correspondence.

Councillor Chris Dolphin commented on the temporary/seasonal nature of some businesses provided by the traveller community and asked if Trading Standards kept in contact with the traveller community when they moved location.    

During discussion Officers responded to the further concerns raised by Members around sale of counterfeit goods, doorstep crime, and scams.  Officers encouraged anyone who had evidence of or suspected unscrupulous activity to report it to the Council’s Trading Standards or the Police.  The Public Protection Manager gave an assurance that such information was useful in terms of ‘intelligence’ gathering and would also be forwarded to the Police and OWL for action.

RESOLVED: 

That the report be received.