Welcome to theEHP’s newsletter issue 102. View the online version here.

In this weeks newsletter you will find the Second Top 10 List, lots of prosecutions & jobs.

Top 10 Article 2013
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This week I have released the second Top 10 List. This is a list of the Top 10 Articles on theEHP. You can view the list here.

If you would like to include your local authorities’ data in this statistical release (for calendar year 2013) please forward details of your prosecutions to [email protected]. If your local authority does not produce press releases, please provide the following details:

  • Name of your LA
  • Date of prosecution
  • Name of person/ business prosecuted
  • Type of prosecution (food safety, health & safety, housing, etc)
  • Outline of the offense
  • Fine
  • Costs
  • Total fine

I welcome any suggestions on how I can improve the statistical release.

If you missed 2012’s statistical release, you can find all Top 10 Lists here. Below you will find 2013’s list so far:

If you would like to submit an article or Podcast to theEHP, Contact Us for details.

Looking forward to seeing you at theEHP.

theEHPs Top 10 Lists

theEHP’s Top 10 Articles 2013
I have compiled a list of 2013′s top 10 articles on theEHP. This list has been complied by analysing the most viewed articles on the site.

Jobs

Jobs: Environmental Health Officer (Housing Standards)
Inspecting and enforcing relevant statutory provisions in HMO accommodation and single family dwelling where the Council is the enforcing authority.

Jobs: Environmental Protection / Environmental Health Officer
Environmental Protection/Environmental Health Officer required in the Midlands.

You must have specialist knowledge and recent relevant experience of Statutory Nuisance including Noise Investigations, Housing Standards, Air Quality, Contaminated Land and Pollution Control including permitted processes.

Jobs: Environmental Health Officer / Empty Property Officer
Empty Property Officer required in the Midlands to assist the Private Sector Housing Manager in strategy development and identification of empty property and take appropriate actions to bring empty private sector property back into use.

Environmental Protection

Environmental Protection: Flintshire fly tipping prosecution
At Wrexham Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 14 November, Tim Dillon, representing Flintshire County Council, prosecuted Mrs Theresa Westwood of 30 Ash Grove, Shotton, in relation to a fly tipping offence at the back of her property.

Environmental Protection: Manchester landlord prosecuted for untidy Hull property
A Manchester based landlord has been prosecuted by Hull City Council for allowing the property he owns to become in a poor condition.

Environmental Protection: Hull resident prosecuted for unacceptable state of property
Residents are being reminded to keep their property in an acceptable condition, following the latest prosecution by Hull City Council.

Environmental Protection: Hull couple prosecuted for excess waste at property
A Bransholme couple have been prosecuted by Hull City Council for the second time for allowing domestic rubbish to accumulate at their property.

Environmental Protection: Landlord found guilty for excess waste at property
A Nottinghamshire-based landlord has been prosecuted after he failed to comply with a notice to clear up the Hull property he owns.

Environmental Protection: Garden waste lands Leeds woman in a mess
Complaints about waste piling up in a garden has resulted in a Leeds resident being fined. Council officers had to step in when fed-up local people reported waste that had been lying around for weeks.

Environmental Protection: Man fined £950 for transporting scrap metal without a licence
A MAN caught transporting a large quantity of scrap metal through Rugby without a licence has been fined £950. James Eagle was driving his vehicle on Dunchurch Road on 26 May when he was stopped by officers from Warwickshire Police and Rugby Borough Council.

Environmental Protection: Fly-tipping costs Swansea man £750
ILLEGALLY dumping waste in a rural community in Swansea has cost a local man £750. Swansea local, Mark Rogerson, recently pleaded guilty to the fly-tipping charge in Swansea Magistrates Court.

Environmental Protection: Noisy Thurrock woman fined
An East Tilbury woman has been fined and had good seized from her home after she breached a noise abatement order three times.



Groupon Deals

Getaways:

Food Safety

Food Safety: Dudley firm fined for hygiene offences
Bosses at a Stourbridge hotel have landed a court bill of more than £30,000 after a string of hygiene offences and claims of a rat in the bar area.

Food Safety: Extra ingredient in pizza costs £1000
The former owner of Flames Kebab of 101 North Street, Romford has been fined £1,000 at Havering Magistrates Court on Friday 20 December 2013 after pleading guilty to selling a pizza with a metal bolt worth just a few pence embedded in the crust.

Food Safety: Joint investigations result in successful prosecutions of takeaway owner
Hull City Council, Humberside Police and DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) have come together to prosecute a takeaway owner for food hygiene offences, benefit fraud and perverting the course of justice.

Food Safety: Kingston shopkeeper fined for catalogue of food safety risks
A New Malden shopkeeper who sold untraceable ready meals, including a sample which tested ‘unsatisfactory’, amid dirty conditions has been penalised more than £2,200 for multiple food safety offences.

Food Safety: Ocean Grill fined for food safety offences
The director of a company which ran a takeaway in Weston-super-Mare has been given a 12 month community order requiring 250 hours unpaid work and a six-month curfew after pleading guilty to a number of food safety offences.

Food Safety: Restaurant owner fined for food hygiene offences
A fast food restaurant owner has been ordered to pay more than £9,000 after being found guilty of 11 food hygiene offences including storing food in a way which could be harmful to the public.

Food Safety: Food Supplier Prosecuted For Meat Sale
A food supplier who sold lamb to a Mountain Ash takeaway without knowing what meat it was has been prosecuted following a successful investigation by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council.

Food Safety: Swansea takeaway hit with fine for food hygiene breach
FOOD businesses in Swansea that breach food safety regulations are being warned they face stiff fines for putting customers at risk by flouting hygiene laws.

theEHP Book Store

theEHP Book StoreView all Environmental Health Books here. If you think a book should be added to the store, please let us know.

theEHP’s Top 10 Environmental Health Books 2013
I have compiled a list of the 10 most popular environmental health books on theEHP in 2013. This list is based on an analysis of purchases and clicks through to the Amazon.co.uk.

Statutory Nuisance Mineshafts – Methods of Investigation and Duties of Local Authorities
This publication follows on from and updates an investigation completed in 2006/7, funded by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Kindle version available now for £31.24.

Understanding Housing Defects – Fourth Edition
Understanding Housing Defects provides a concise, coherent and comprehensive introduction to the causes, investigation and diagnosis of defects in domestic buildings.

For this new edition, many of the chapters have been substantially updated and new photographs have been added. There are four new chapters covering:

  • How defects are defined
  • An overview of building and architectural history
  • External joinery and painted finishes
  • Environmental and health- related building problems

Many of the 21 chapters cover a specific building element and include a brief introduction setting out construction principles and the evolution of current practice. All of the chapters consider the identification, cause and diagnosis of common (and sometimes not so common) defects. This book is a must have for all those students and practitioners who require a broad understanding of housing defects.

Putting Wrong Things Right: Environmental Health, 1952-2012
This short film introduces the book, ‘Puttting wrong things right: Environmental Health from 1952 to 2012′.

Deals on Amazon:

Housing

Housing: LGO finds that Sandwell failed elderly disabled woman
An elderly disabled woman has been denied access to suitable bathing facilities for around three years because of a catalogue of delays by Sandwell Council, a Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) investigation has found.

Housing: Letting agent fined for operating unlicensed HMO
A letting agent who ran a house of multiple occupation (HMO) without a licence has been fined a total of £14,120. Shahnawaz Lal, sole director of Haris properties, located in Lincoln Road, Peterborough, pleaded guilty, on behalf of his company, to running the former guest house in Limetree Avenue as a house in multiple occupation without a licence

Housing: ‘Rich List’ Landlord Prosecuted by Reading Council
A READING landlord has been prosecuted by the Council after failing to properly maintain one of his properties, despite previous repeated warnings last year to do so.

Housing: Southend landlord fined for renting death trap to vulnerable tenants
On Wednesday, December 11, housing landlord Alfred Katona, 75, of 67 Chadwick Road, Westcliff admitted five breaches of The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006.

Housing: Court hears of house’s appalling condition
A house in Kensington was in “an appalling and dangerous state of repair” which put tenants at risk a court heard.

Housing: Unlicensed Liverpool landlords fined
Two landlords who operated multi-occupied houses without licences have been fined. Azim Kibria, aged 31, of Hartington Road, Toxteth pleaded guilty at Liverpool Magistrates Court to the offence and also admitted five breaches of safety regulations.

Housing: £10,000 fines for fire-trap Liverpool house
The unlicensed landlord of a students’ house which posed a serious fire risk has been fined a total of £10,000.



 Resources

A Guide to BS 5839-6:2013
This new book, fully revised and updated in its third edition, is the comprehensive guide to BS 5839-6:2013. Based on in-depth experience of developing this code of practice as well as its use in the field, this book provides full background explanation and discusses the practical application of its recommendations.

A Guide to BS 5839-1:2013
This new book, fully revised and updated in its fourth edition, is the comprehensive guide to BS 5839-1:2013. Based on in-depth experience of developing this code of practice as well as its use in the field, this book provides full background explanation and discusses the practical application of its recommendations.

A Guide to BS 5839-8:2013
This new book, fully revised and updated in its third edition, is the comprehensive guide to BS 5839-8:2013. Based on in-depth experience of developing this code of practice as well as its use in the field, this book provides full background explanation and discusses the practical application of its recommendations.

RPT Decisions