Tag Archives: Business

New powers will effectively ‘close’ problem alcohol retailers

Businesses that persistently sell alcoholic drinks to children could lose their license to sell alcohol in a matter of a few short weeks, thanks to new powers given to Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service.

Trading Standards Officers and Warwickshire Police can now stop businesses selling alcohol for up to two weeks where the retailer is found to have made two or more sales of alcohol to children in a three month period.

For many stores that rely wholly or predominately on the sale of alcohol for their profits, such as off-licenses, preventing a retailer from selling alcohol can often have a significant effect upon a business – effectively closing it for trade.

These new powers offer Trading Standards Services the opportunity to take quick and decisive action against problem businesses, whilst still allowing officers to take a full prosecution if a business transgressed further.

Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety said: “Most retailers understand the problems caused by under-age drinking, to the health of young people and in terms of anti-social behaviour in the community. They take their responsibilities seriously and ensure that children and young people cannot buy alcohol.

“However, there remains a small minority who despite education, support and warnings, continue to sell to under 18s. This new power will help us to take quick and decisive action against them which will have an effect not only on their alcohol sales, but their entire business.”

In the latest undercover test purchase exercise, 17 alcohol retailers were visited across North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth and Rugby. Businesses that were suspected of selling alcohol to children were targeted and four sales of alcohol were made to 15 year old child volunteers.

  • Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire: 11 alcohol test purchases attempted and one sale made (in North Warwickshire).
  • Rugby: six alcohol test purchases attempted and three sales made.

Warwickshire Trading Standards uses information and intelligence gathered from local communities to target problem businesses and investigations by Warwickshire Trading Standards Service are now on-going.

  • A recent survey has revealed that 20 per cent of 13-year-olds drink alcohol at least once a week. In 2009, the Chief Medical Officer advised that under-15s should not be drinking alcohol at all.
  • Alcohol misuse is a major public health problem, placing a heavy burden on society, and affecting a large number of individuals of all ages.
  • A new national alcohol strategy was published in March 2012.
  • In Warwickshire, alcohol is key public health priority having featured in the Director of Public Health’s annual report of 2011; it is a cross-cutting priority for all four Community Safety Partnerships; and there is Warwickshire wide alcohol implementation plan supported by all key stakeholders.

Under 18?

Contact Compass Warwickshire for drug and alcohol advice, information and specialist treatment on freephone 08000 88 72 48. The service is available between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Please leave a message if your call isn’t answered – someone will get back to you.

More information from – http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/alcohol

In addition to the new powers detailed above, brought in following an amendment to the Licensing Act 2003, Trading Standards Officers also have the option to prosecute as an alternative. The offence of persistently selling alcohol to children now carries a maximum fine of £20,000 (raised from £10,000) and following conviction, a Magistrates court could suspend the retailers licence to sell alcohol for up to three months.

Fire Suppression System averts potential disaster!

Warwickshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service say a building was saved from going up in flames thanks to the Fire Suppression System the company had installed.

Firefighters were called to a fire at Millward Brown UK Ltd on Olympus Avenue, Tachbrook Park, Leamington on Sunday 29 April 2012 at 3.35am. The fire was located on the first floor in the computer room.  Two appliances from Leamington attended the incident and crews quickly set into action to tackle the fire. It is believed the fire started in a large battery back up store which was situated in a metal cabinet. The radiant heat from the fire ignited some paper and cardboard, which could have easily spread, had the company’s fire suppression system not kicked in.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Gary Phillips said:

“Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service would like to commend Millward Brown UK Ltd for having a Fire Suppression System in place. Not only did it stop the fire from developing, but it also saved the business from going up in flames, which in this economic climate is a real benefit, not only for the organisation, but also for the staff who are employed there and the community as a whole.

“As a Fire and Rescue Service we have long been petitioning for suppression systems such as sprinklers to be fitted in homes and businesses.  In our role we see the devastation fires cause, but can get frustrated knowing that something as simple as a suppression or sprinkler system could stop a real disaster from occurring.”

 David Chantrey, Managing Director of Millward Brown in Warwick, commented:

“The safety of our staff and preserving our service to our clients are utmost priorities for us.  We’re delighted that the systems we have in place worked as they were designed to and would encourage other businesses to do the same. We’d also like to thank Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service for their fast and professional response”.

Further information on business fire safety can be found at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/saferpremises

Businesses bid for growth

A major new fund to boost development and help grow the local economy has been oversubscribed with applications from local businesses.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) was awarded an allocation of £12.8 million from the Government’s Growing Places Fund – designed to kick-start developments and other infrastructure projects allowing them to deliver quicker economic benefits.

Applications to the fund had to be submitted to Warwickshire County Council this week, and eight schemes have put themselves forward for loans from the scheme.

Businesses have requested funding of more than £20 million for developments which could lead to the creation of 18,000 new jobs by 2016.

Denys Shortt, chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP, said the schemes would be assessed in the next two weeks.

“We are really pleased that we have had such a good response,” he said. “We will be looking at the schemes in real detail over the coming days to ensure we can produce the best results to boost the economy of Coventry and Warwickshire.

“The programme is designed to kick-start projects which could otherwise be stuck. The eight applications would involve other investment of more than £250 million, so we are talking about some key strategic schemes.”

“These projects will be initially assessed by a technical group and then  the CWLEP Growing Places Appraisal Panel meets later in the month to score and approve which projects should then move to the due diligence stage.”

Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Communities and CWLEP board member, said: “The interest generated by the Growing Places Fund shows there are major schemes out there ready to kick start the local economy. We are in the process of evaluating the applications and anticipate being able to make announcements on the successful schemes from early June.”

The Fund has been established to be as flexible and as streamlined as possible with the aim of offering loans at highly attractive rates. The minimum sized investment is £1 million.

Financial returns will then be used for further projects with the aim of developing a long-term “ever-green” fund.

Projects which applied had to be ‘ready-to-go’ as possible, and to have, or had to show, a reasonable expectation of gaining planning consent by September this year with work ideally starting on-site by the end of 2012, or as soon as possible after that date.

Projects had to be predominantly employment focused, and of benefit to the local economy.

Warwickshire County Council is acting as the fund holder for the scheme and handling the application process on behalf of the CW LEP.

Don’t Let Them Con You or Someone You Know

If you have ever received a lottery ‘winners’ letter for a competition you hadn’t entered or an offer from a mystic clairvoyant to change your fortunes, (for just a few pounds), then you are one of the many thousands of people targeted each week by mass marketing scams.

May is National Scams Awareness Month and Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service wants Warwickshire residents and businesses to forward any potential scam letters, emails or details of phone calls to them at the following FREEPOST address:

FREEPOST CV1898
Warwickshire County Council
Trading Standards Service
Old Budbrooke Road
WARWICK  CV35 7BR

Mark your letter ‘Scams Awareness Month 2012’.

This information will be recorded and used to investigate the scale of the problem both in Warwickshire and across the country.

Criminal gangs, (often operating from abroad), use the post, email, fax and telephone to send out millions of scams ever year. They are usually sent out indiscriminately, but those who respond are then added to special lists and targeted.

Common Scams include:

  • Prize draw and sweepstake scams
  • Foreign lottery scams
  • Email ‘phising’ scams
  • Premium rate and telephone prize scams
  • Work at home and business opportunity scam
  • Pyramid selling and chain letter scams
  • Miracle health and slimming cure scams
  • Clairvoyant and psychic mailing scams
  • Bogus holiday clubs
  • Advanced fee frauds, and
  • Bogus business publishing offers

Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety said:

“It is estimated that £3.5billion pounds each year are lost from the economy to scams and across the UK almost half the population have been targeted at one time or another.”

“Three million people in the UK fall victim to these types of scams every year.”

“Our goal throughout this month is to raise awareness of these many scams, how to spot them and how to protect vulnerable people from falling victim to them.”

“Whilst there is almost a different scam for every day of the year, there are five simple rules that everyone can follow to help avoid being scammed.”

Warwickshire Trading Standards 5 Simple Rules

  1. Never send money to anyone who says you’ve won a prize or the lottery
  2. Never give out your bank account details or other personal information to people you do not know or trust.
  3. Never feel pressured to respond immediately, however enticing the offer may seem.
  4. Never send money in response to bogus psychic mailings.
  5. If something sounds too good to be true it probably is!

More information on scams is available on our website: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/scams

You can also report a fraud to Action Fraud on: 0300 123 2040 or visit: www.actionfraud.police.uk

The Citizens Advice consumer service provides free, confidential and impartial advice on consumer issues. Visit www.adviceguide.org.uk or call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 08454 04 05 06 or 0208 1850 710(English language).

  • The Office of Fair Trading estimates that over three million people in the UK fall victim to mass marketed scams every year, collectively losing £3.5billion.
  • Fewer than 5 per cent of victims report their experience – one reason the OFT and local authority Trading Standards Services carry out public reporting drives for scam mailings.
  • Research has suggested that an estimated 28 million UK consumers are targeted each year by scams, which exploit low cost, mass marketing techniques such as post, telephone, e-mail and the Internet.

What’s in your kebab?

Consumers ordering lamb curries or lamb kebabs may not get what they expect a Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service project has revealed.

Trading Standards Officers visited 20 restaurants and takeaways, at random, in Stratfordupon Avon, Leamington Spa, Nuneaton and Rugby and purchased 39 lamb curries and lamb kebabs. These were then tested to see what meat they actually contained and to check for high levels of artificial colours.

Lamb is typically the most expensive meat consumers can buy, followed by beef and pork with chicken being the cheapest. Trading Standards Officers wanted to check that consumers were getting what they expected – and paid for.

Incredibly, none of the 20 lamb kebabs sampled contained just lamb. They all contained a mixture of lamb together with either pork, beef or poultry (chicken).

Trading Standards Officers understand that some restaurants may be knowingly using chicken in their lamb kebabs as it helps to ensure the meat sticks together around the skewer during cooking.

Of the 19 lamb curries tested, only three contained just lamb. Again, most contained a mixture of lamb together with either beef or poultry (chicken).

Four lamb curries didn’t contain any lamb at all.

The foods were also checked for high levels of artificial colourings. Adults can be adversely affected by artificial colours, and in children trigger hyperactivity.

Although none of the curries were found to contain high levels of colours, 70 per cent of the kebabs tested did. One contained levels of artificial colouring that were 18 times higher than permitted, another was 13 times higher. This may be due to human error in preparation of the marinades used by the restaurants and take-aways to give the kebab colour.

Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety said: “Trading Standards carry out important work to help ensure that the food we eat is correctly described and safe.”

“Consumers rely on accurate food descriptions. Some foods are not permitted to be eaten by some religions and cultures whilst some people may wish to avoid some foods because of allergy concerns.”

“Consumers should also have the confidence that if they are buying an expensive product such as lamb, that they are not getting chicken instead, a meat that is half the price.”

“Warwickshire Trading Standards will now be contacting every restaurant and takeaway involved. Further investigations are to be carried out and advice will be provided to retailers and the wholesale trade.”

Applications for fund are ‘growing’

Applicants from Warwickshire businesses are being sought to bid for a share of a major new fund designed to boost development and help grow the local economy.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has been allocated £12.8 million from the Government’s Growing Places Fund – aimed at kick-starting developments and other infrastructure projects to allow them to deliver quicker economic benefits.

The LEP is inviting bids from county firms for a share of the fund which has been established to be as flexible and as streamlined as possible and offer loans at highly attractive rates.

The minimum sized investment is £1 million and financial returns to the fund will be used for further projects with the aim of developing a long-term “ever-green” pot.

Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Communities and CW LEP board member, said: “We are encouraging Warwickshire businesses to come forward and apply for a share of this pot of money.

“The principal aim of the fund is to be able to deliver additional finance to schemes which could move forward at a quicker pace and bring earlier benefits to the local economy.

“The goal is to develop a long-term fund by reinvesting returns, so that we can keep schemes moving forward and allowing them to realise their full economic benefits.”

The application process has been opened this month and all bids need to be in by April 30.

Eligible projects should be as ‘ready-to-go’ as possible, and to have or show a reasonable expectation of gaining planning consent by September this year with work ideally starting on-site by the end of 2012, or as soon as possible after that date. Projects should be predominantly employment focused, and will benefit the local economy.

The fund’s preference is to provide loans at attractive market rates (from 2.34%), although equity finance will also be considered.

Warwickshire County Council is acting as the fund holder for the scheme and handling the application process on behalf of the CW LEP.

Details, along with applications details, can be found on the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP website at http://www.cwlep.com