Agenda and minutes

A nomination for the position of the Chairman of the Board was received in respect of Councillor I. Hardiman. This nomination was proposed, seconded and on being put to the vote agreed.

RESOLVED that Councillor I. Hardiman be appointed as Chairman of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board for the remainder of 2025/26 municipal year.

The existing Vice-Chairman, Councillor J. Spilsbury, remained as Vice-Chairman of the Board.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors K. Taylor (Bromsgrove District Council), D. Harrison (Malvern Hills District Council), and C. Palmer (Malvern Hills District Council).

Councillor D. Clarke (Malvern Hills District Council attended the meeting as a substitute for Councillor D. Harrison.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

Councillor D. Clarke declared an other disclosable interest in item 7 (Minute No. 26/25), Briefing on Food Standards Agency (FSA), in that he was a food retailer. Councillor Clarke remained in the room and took part in the debate on this item.

There were no other declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board held on 25^th September 2025 were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board held on 25^th September 2025 be approved as a correct record.

The Interim Chief Finance Officer (Section 151 Officer), Bromsgrove District (BDC) and Redditch Borough (RBC) Councils, introduced the report and in doing informed Members that at quarter 2 2025/26 there was an underspend of £47,000 and a projected outturn (year-end) underspend for Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) of £3,000.

It was highlighted that staffing costs had remained largely on target with a final agreement for the 2025/26 pay award of 3.2%. This would result in an additional

salary pressure of £9,000 for WRS, which was included in the quarter 2 figures and Officers would look to manage this pressure from within the existing financial allocation.

It was noted that the report set out WRS partner councils’ liabilities. The resolutions as set out on pages 15 and 16 of the main agenda pack were approved by the Board.

RESOLVED that the Board

1.1  Note the final financial position for the period April–September 2025.

1.2  That partner councils are informed of their liabilities for April – September 2025 in relation to Bereavements

1.3  That partner councils are informed of their liabilities for 2025-26 in relation to Pest control

1.4  That partner councils are informed of their liabilities for 2025-26 in relation to additional Technical Officers

Briefing on the recent engagement between Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) was provided. It was recapped that following the last engagement with the Agency which took place in Autumn 2023, 5 additional posts were created for the food safety service within WRS, two Senior Technical Officers and three Regulatory Compliance Officers.

At the recent meeting, on 23rd October 2025, with the Director of WRS, the WRS Food Safety lead officer, and the Community Environmental Health and Trading Standards Manager, the Agency (FSA) identified the need for WRS to further increase resource level within the food safety service to ensure full alignment and compliance with the statutory Code of Practice under section 40 of the Food Safety Act 1990. In response, a revised action plan would be drafted to provide a detailed outline of how WRS would move towards full alignment, which would need to be submitted by mid-December. The WRS was required to comply with the Agency’s advice.

The Director of WRS stated that this decision on the part of the Agency (FSA) would have implications in particular in the increased inspections regime for lower risk premises rated D and E. The WRS would reorganise the team to deal with the increased demands placed by the Agency (FSA) by recreating the split between specific teams for commercial and environmental areas of environmental health. The Director of WRS explained that prior to consolidation of WRS, in 2009-10, there were 22.3 full-time equivalent dedicated food safety officers working across the six districts in Worcestershire. Members were reassured that despite the expectation to increase resources, the WRS would not be increasing staffing resources up to that level.

Disappointment was expressed with the Agency’s (FSA) decision, particularly in light of the significant improvement in food safety visit output by WRS in the last year. It was noted that variation to the budget paper would be brought to the next meeting of WRS Board in February 2026. Appendix A provided a purely illustrative indication of the additional costs which could be faced by partner authorities as a result of the need to increase staffing in food safety. A question was asked whether WRS could utilise its financial reserves to cover this additional cost. The Director of WRS responded that this would be discussed with the Section 151 Officers from each partner authority.

Inspection timescales within the Code of Practice were discussed. It was explained that the Code was prescriptive in regard to timescales within which inspections were required for each risk category of premises, with risk A premises having to be inspected at least once every 6 months, risk B every 12 months, risk C every 18 months, risk D every 2 years, risk E every 3 years.

It was noted that only around 5 per cent of registered food businesses in Worcestershire were non-compliant when inspected and required follow-up visits. Businesses generally upheld high standards of food safety and hygiene across Worcestershire with only 1 to 2 businesses being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26/25

The Interim Chief Finance Officer (Section 151 Officer), Bromsgrove District (BDC) and Redditch Borough (RBC) Councils, introduced the report and highlighted that through the legal requirement between the partner authorities, the WRS was required to set its revenue budget by 1 December each year. It was noted that the report appendices provided detail on the WRS Budget 2026/27 to 2028/29, the breakdown of Partner Contributions for 2026/27 to 2028/29, and Budgeted Income for WRS in 2026/27.

A Member expressed disappointment that partner contributions had increased again for 2026/27 and queried if the WRS maximised its commercial opportunities. The Director of WRS responded that the service had set high expectations for the performance of staff and Members were reassured that Officers worked hard to maximise income. It was noted that in 2017 the WRS Board was approached, and approved, an additional post within the Service and it was highlighted that WRS reached break-even position by mid-2018 and delivered income since. It was noted that WRS had reached capacity in terms of income generation it could achieve based on the current staffing level.

A Member queried why partner authorities did not pay equal contributions to the budget or had equal allocations from the budget but received varying levels of contributions. The Director of WRS responded that this was a historic arrangement in place since commencement of the partnership and the WRS Board in 2010, whereby the percentage paid by each partner authority was based on the revenue budget which each partner contributed to the collective budget at that time. This was reviewed in 2013/14, at the end of the initial business case period for WRS and minor changes were made, but not subsequently, although officers had discussed options.

A question was raised about the financial reserves held by WRS and in what way they could be utilised. The Director of WRS explained that the majority of the reserve originated when Worcestershire County Council (WCC) left the WRS partnership arrangement. It was noted that the major reserves in place were designed to provide a buffer for the partner authorities in case of any unanticipated overspends.

The Technical Services Manager, WRS, further clarified that smaller earmarked reserves were utilised in areas such as air quality work. It was remarked that the WRS arrangement would likely not continue under if one unitary authority model was established as a result of Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). As such it was commented by some Members that it might be beneficial for WRS reserves to be invested prior to LGR vesting day when the partner authorities were still in place, to limit the impact of additional costs on the partners at this time.

A Member asked whether renewal of relationship and partnership arrangements with Worcestershire County Council (WCC) was actively explored provided that either a one- or two-unitary council arrangement would be introduced into Worcestershire through the LGR. The Director of WRS explained that WRS already managed trading standards for WCC and had good working relationship with Director of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27/25

The Technical Services Manager, Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), presented the report which set out the Activity and Performance Data for Quarter 2 2025/26 and in doing so drew Members’ attention to the following activity areas of the report:

Activity Data

There were 694 interventions undertaken during quarter the year to date (Q1 and Q2), of which only around 5% had resulted in businesses being rated as "non-compliant" (issued a rating of 0, 1, or 2 FHRS score). A significant proportion of non-compliant ratings continued to be issued within the hospitality sector (such as takeaways and restaurants) or small retailers.

In Licensing, the number of licensing cases received during the year to date showed a reduction of 11% compared to the same time period in 2024/25 and a 6% reduction compared to 2023/24. However, a large number complaints were being received with 807 complaints and enquiries received to date in 2025/26. Of these, some 505 were complaints relating to license holders, with approximately 40% of the complaints relating to taxi licensing.

Planning enquiries continued to fall during Q2, but they remained 5% above the figure for the same period in 2024/25 and 26% above the figure for 2023/24 for this period of the year.

The number of reported strays in Q2 2025/26 was the highest in the current 3-year reporting period, slightly surpassing last year’s Q3 figure. The upward trend continued in this area. A Board Member expressed concern at this trend in dog stray cases and queried about communications in this area. The Marketing and Communications Manager, WRS, responded that in anticipation of the festive season WRS would be coordinating a press release and an awareness campaign across partner authorities on things to consider before buying a dog, and importance of choosing only licensed breeders.

The number of pollution cases received this year to date remained similar to 2023/24 level but 21% higher than 2024/25. Around 92% of pollution cases this year had been reports of potential nuisances with 45% of cases relating to noise from residential properties. Other prominent nuisances reports included noise from night-time economy businesses, noise from other hospitality businesses, smoke from the burning of domestic or commercial waste, and noise or dust from construction sites.

Performance

It was reported that the non-business customer satisfaction measure improved from 53.8% in quarter 1 to 61.7% at the end of this quarter 2. Number of people satisfied with the speed of initial response was at 62%. The biggest issue remained the inability in some cases to deliver the outcome people would like to see which was most often due to public expectations not being met by what the law on nuisance allowed for.

Business satisfaction had increased this quarter (Q2) from 91.8% to 95.1% but remained below expectations. The trend in this area was being monitored to help identify reasons for this.

Performance on processing complete driver license renewals within 5 working days was lower for the first 6 months of 2025/26 at 88.4%, compared to the figures for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28/25

A briefing on noise and licensed premises was provided. It was noted that WRS endeavoured to work with all parties to resolve the situation, informally where possible, to resolve noise nuisance complaints. It was highlighted that officers had noticed an increasing complexity in noise nuisance complaints with many investigations taking a prolonged period due to issues with obtaining sufficient evidence. The current backlog in the legal system caused further delays in some cases.

The WRS approach was to be proactive in relation to noise nuisance and work at a preventative stage so that issues did not arise in the first place where possible. It was reported that commercial premises were responsible for around one-third of nuisance complaints received by WRS. A large proportion of these related to issues with noise from pubs and clubs.

The proactive approach focused on premises such as pubs and clubs. A targeted advisory letter was sent to all pubs and clubs where a noise complaint was received in 2023, and the approach was further developed in 2024 to include issuing pre-season (pre-summer) noise control advice to premises where complaints had previously been reported. Officers reported that this approach received a positive response from the business community.

The guidance document for businesses was also created, attached for Members’ consideration at appendix 1 to the report, which provided a look at factors for consideration within noise nuisance such as noise amplification, equipment used, structure of the building and outdoor areas, together with a basic explanation of the law of nuisance. It was reported that further to the guidance document the WRS offered to visit any premise to discuss upcoming events as a proactive method to combat any potential complaints and this approach was continued in 2025.

In terms of the levels of noise complaints, it was reported that despite the hot summer in 2025, the levels of noise complaints were held at the same level as for 2023/24 when the summer weather was considerably wetter and colder.

A Board Member asked about complaints from residents about pubs and whether residents could either submit anonymous complaints themselves or for elected members to submit complaints on behalf of the complainant(s) to WRS.

The Community Environmental Health and Trading Standards Manager, WRS, responded that if a formal nuisance complaint was to be made, this required the complainant to provide their name and address as any assessment of nuisance would be made at their property, rather than the source of the potential nuisance issue itself. However, elected members could submit additional information or raise an issue with WRS officers to provide supporting evidence in respect of a case, particularly as the alleged nuisance issue may only be one of the problems created by activities at a location.

It was reiterated that in most cases the WRS used an informal approach to resolve or, in this case prevent problems, for example 130 advisory letters sent to businesses in the last year as part of the project, which were generally well-received and helped  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29/25

There was no Urgent Business on this occasion.