Borough council to spend more than £200k extra on environmental health services
Stafford Borough councillors have agreed to spend more than £200,000 extra on environmental health services to maintain and improve work in areas including food safety and water supply checks.
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Members of the authority also gave the green light for a further £61,940 to be earmarked for the permanent establishment of a senior environmental health officer post, replacing one funded by a lapsed Covid grant, in a decision made behind closed doors at the end of Tuesday’s full council meeting (September 10).
The decisions followed a confidential discussion at the August cabinet meeting, where senior council members heard that additional funding was being requested to maintain the provision of current levels of service by the environmental health team. Minutes from the meeting added that additional temporary funding was sought “to support clearing a backlog of work relating to environmental permitting and regulatory checks on private water supplies .”
On Tuesday temporary additional funding of £112,840 was agreed to maintain the current agency support for work on food safety and environmental protection. A further £96,200 temporary additional funding was approved “to provide additional support to improve work relating to environmental permitting and regulatory checks on private water supplies.”
In July it was revealed that extra staffing costs in the council’s planning and regeneration department had contributed to a £1.1m gap in the authority’s overall budget at the end of 2023. A report on the authority’s position at the end of the 2023/24 financial year is due to be presented at a later date.
Councillor Ralph Cooke, cabinet member for finance, said at the July cabinet meeting: “The majority of the additional costs relate to staffing. I would like to reassure the cabinet that the overspend will be financed from reserves to ensure that the council maintains a balanced position.”
Councillor Ant Reid. cabinet member for economic development and planning, said the authority had been working to tackle an historic backlog of planning applications. He added: “The service has struggled to recruit to vacancies due to the wider national shortage of experienced planners.
“It has been necessary to use agency staff and external consultants to undertake the work and they are expensive. However the service has recently been very successful in recruiting new staff and this will help to reduce the cost in the future.”
