Virus enforcement cash
NOTTINGHAM City Council is to receive £236,000 from the Government to enforce coronavirus rules.
The money will be used to increase patrols in the city and neighbouring town centres to make sure people stick to the restrictions.
It will also be used for enforcement checks on businesses, a city council’s delegated decision document said.
It will also help with paying for enforcement officers such as environmental health officers and community protection officers to explain the rules and encourage businesses and communities to comply, carrying out inspections, issuing fines and closing premises in serious cases.
The news comes after the Prime Minister announced in September that £60 million would be made available to police and authorities for “compliance and enforcement activities relating to Covid-19”.
The money will also have “a positive impact on crime and anti-social behaviour”, the document said as community protection pfficers were a “highly visible deterrent”.
It added: “The council will be working in partnership with the police and both of the universities in Nottingham, with targeted patrols and engagement in high-volume student areas of the city.”
Councillor Neghat Khan, portfolio holder for community protection, said: “This funding from Government will be spent on more patrols across the city to ensure that people are complying with the new Covid restrictions, including enforcement checks on businesses.
“Our work has a l ready included visits to more than 30 local companies where we have given advice and handed out factsheets which explain what the requirements are. We’ve issued a £1,000 fixed penalty notice to a non-essential retail premises for breach of regulations, plus a prohibition order to a business which was operating when it shouldn’t have been. We’ll continue to fine only as a last resort and focus on education and engagement.
“This money is ring-fenced for any activity that will support compliance and enforcement of measures to control the spread of Covid. Other areas of the country have chosen to employ Covid marshals but we already have community protection officers who have been carrying out the same role since the first national lockdown in March.”