Top marks for Council environmental team
Winchester City Council's environmental protection team has come out top following an inter-authority audit of eleven Hampshire authorities by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight environmental control advisory committee.
The audit looked at a dozen aspects of environmental control activity, including staff competency, communication with stakeholders, air quality, costs, education and promotion, quality assurance and enforcement policy.
Winchester achieved the highest score of 30 across the County and was rated above average for each of the sections apart from noise service requests where they were rated lower because of a lack of a written noise complaint policy although this is now in hand. Moreover, in spite of the low score, they were commended for having "best practice" in their noise service initiatives.
"This is another example of how Winchester takes the environmental protection aspects of its work very seriously," said Cllr Jim Wagner, portfolio holder for health and well being.
"Staff are to be congratulated for their excellence which has already been recognised by the Cabinet Office who awarded the Environmental Health Service the prestigious Chartermark Award for customer service for the third time earlier this year."