Trading Standards – responsible for the well being of Rochdale

The Trading Standards Department of Rochdale Borough Council is responsible for the well being of the community throughout the borough.

Trading Standards is one part of the public protection service within the council. This service involves trading standards, environmental health and licensing.

Trading Standards deals with a number of issues involving local businesses and members of the community, anything from food safety, counterfeit goods, trading practices, age restricted products and weights and measures.

To deal with these issues, the teams from Trading Standards will work with “everybody and anybody”. Nicola Rogers, Acting Chief Public Protection Officer, said: “We deal with everybody and anybody. Any business within the borough or any resident within the borough, or anyone coming to the borough, we would have contact with anybody really.”

Nicola is currently responsible for managing the public protection service. She said: “I get involved with the service planning and setting the direction of the service in line with the corporate and councillors priorities. I deal with performance management and making sure the service delivers on its statutory functions. I ensure that we conduct our statutory functions in a fair and proportionate manner but also in a consistent manner because it is important to have consistency.”

Even though there are a lot of areas to cover, the public protection service within the council is a number of small teams working together to tackle issues.

Hot issues within the department vary on a regular basis depending on information provided to them. This can be anything from anti-social behaviour to counterfeit goods to ongoing scams in the area.

The trading standards department is also responsible for the 'Responsible Retailers' initiative that is currently ongoing throughout the borough. The Responsible Retailers initiative is in place to help protect retailers from falling foul of the law by providing help, support and advice on the importance of trading legislation when it comes to the sale of alcohol, cigarettes and knives.

“We provide material for the shops to use in their premises so if there is a conflict when asking for ID, they can show the posters and leaflets and say look, it's not my fault, it’s the law. We also provide advice about the laws and offer training courses to those who want it” said Nicola.

The Responsible Retailers scheme was originally in Rochdale and Middleton to help stop the sale of alcohol to under age consumers. Now across the whole of the borough, the scheme hopes to also stop the sale of tobacco to those who are under age.

The Trading Standards service is important to the council because it protects the public in the widest sense possible. Nicola added: “We cover everything from the food we eat, to the things that we buy and all of the traders that the residents come into contact with.”

The team also assesses places and goods within the borough. Assessments include ensuring that premises are suitable, venues are attractive for customers and that premises do encourage people to visit.

The team at Trading Standards always welcomes information from the public. Nicola said: “People often get in touch with us and feed us information. They can do it anonymously but it helps if we know who they are because sometimes we don’t always get the right information or enough information from them, so if we can be in touch with them, it will certainly help.”

Anyone wishing to get in contact with Trading Standards can contact 08454 040506.