Latest news with #inspectors
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
The Bexley restaurants, cafes and takeaways with poor food hygiene
Five eating spots in Bexley have scored poor food hygiene ratings this year. Of these venues, two received a score of 1 out of 5 during inspections since January, meaning that major improvements are necessary. Three places scored a 2/5, meaning 'improvement necessary.' Inspectors from Bexley Council's environmental health have not slammed any restaurants and cafes with the lowest possible score, a 0/5, meaning that 'urgent improvement necessary," this year. We have listed these places and the date their rating was given. It's important to note that this list is only about Bexley restaurants, coffee shops, and cafes, and did not feature anything the health departments count as takeaways or sandwich shops. Low hygiene ratings in Bexley (Feb–Jul 2025) Rated 1 – Major improvement necessary Beirut City Lebanese, 222 Broadway, Bexleyheath – inspected January 22 Crayford Tandoori Restaurant, 4 Waterside, Crayford – inspected May 14 Inspectors deemed the management of food safety in both of these restaurants as needing 'major improvement'. Rated 2 – Some improvement necessary F & D's Café, 6 Bellegrove Parade, Welling – inspected May 14 Jalsha Tandoori, 169-171 Station Road, Sidcup – inspected June 23 Three Cooks Sandwich Bar, 66 Nuxley Road, Belvedere – inspected May 28 A food safety officer will focus on three key areas during their inspection. These areas are the hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of facilities and buildings, and the management of food safety. A low hygiene rating doesn't automatically mean a restaurant is unsafe, but it does indicate that standards have fallen below what is expected. Businesses receiving a 1 or 2 are expected to make improvements quickly and may be subject to follow-up visits or further action from the local authority. If necessary changes aren't made, the council can take enforcement action, which could include fines, closure notices, or even prosecution.
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Care home rated 'good' overall following assessment
A RECENT assessment found Whittle Hall House Care Residence in Great Sankey to be "good" overall, despite some concerns about record-keeping and family involvement in care planning. The assessment, carried out between May 12 and May 27 followed concerns about people's safety at the home. Whittle Hall House Care Residence, located on Littledale Road, provides accommodation and personal care with nursing for up to 74 people. At the time of the assessment, 71 people were living at the home. Inspectors visited the home on May 12 and completed the rest of their checks offsite. They focused on 21 quality statements relating to safety, effectiveness, and leadership. While the home was rated "good" overall, inspectors found that daily records used to monitor care for people at risk were not always completed. This included records of fluid intake and positional changes. Some care records also lacked details about people's care needs. Managers responded positively to this feedback and said they would take action to keep records up to date. Inspectors found that safety concerns were listened to and investigated quickly, with lessons learned to prevent future problems. Staff and managers knew how to report safeguarding concerns and were aware of different types of abuse. Medicines were managed safely by trained staff, and there were enough staff with the right skills and experience. People's needs were assessed using recognised tools, and care plans were regularly reviewed and updated. People's nutritional and hydration needs were met, and they had a choice of healthy food and drink. People were supported to attend health appointments, and referrals to other services were made promptly when needed. Decisions for people lacking capacity were made in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The home had an experienced manager and a positive culture focused on listening and learning. Staff felt supported and able to speak up. There was good partnership working to meet people's needs. People living at the home and their families mostly felt safe and well cared for. One resident said: "Yes I feel very safe." Another said: "Treated fine, nothing to worry about." Family members commented, "I feel they [relative] are safe here," and "Yes definitely (safe)." The home was described as clean, with one person saying: "Yes, (clean) I'd mention it if it wasn't." Family members said they were told about incidents, with one saying: "Me and my sister are both told, relative had a fall last night and we were called straight away." However, feedback about involvement in care planning and knowing the manager was mixed. Managers said they would look at ways to improve communication in these areas.
Yahoo
02-08-2025
- Yahoo
More police back on the beat in anti-crime drive across the Durham force area
Increased police patrols have led to more than 60 arrests as officers have gone back on the beat across County Durham and Darlington. Peak time patrols have stepped up in town centre hotspots over recent weeks to tackle serious violence, knife crime and anti-social behaviour. Extra officers have been made available for high-visibility deployment to help deliver Operation Pave, a £1m move that appears to be already paying dividends. Specific Operation Pave patrols led to 63 arrests being made, 11 vehicle seizures and 26 fixed penalty notices being issued during June, as officers targeted issues highlighted by the public as of most concern to them. (Image: Tom Banks) The results included officers in Chester-le-Street seizing an undocumented quad bike and arresting the driver after patrol officers found a large group of motorcyclists gathered in Lambton Lane. Two men were arrested in Darlington and a significant quantity of drugs were seized, while a prolific offender was given a criminal behaviour order and banned from the city centre in Durham for two years. Following a stop and search operation, a woman was arrested for drug possession in Stanley. The visible deterrent of extra patrols is just part of a drive to further improve neighbourhood policing across the Durham force area. Six new inspectors have been appointed to cover Spennymoor, Seaham, Barnard Castle and Crook, Consett and Stanley, and Darlington and Newton Aycliffe to spearhead improvements to community policing force-wide. The new inspectors will be joined by 26 extra beat officers and PCSOs over the next few months, recruited to bolster the frontline fight against crime and anti-social behaviour. It is helping the force to make positive progress towards the delivery of the first stage of the National Policing Guarantee, announced by the Home Office in April. Every resident of County Durham and Darlington now has a named officer to deal with issues in their locality. Details can be found in the Your Area section of the force website, via Home | Durham Constabulary. Although immediate calls for help should still go through 999 or 101, it means members of the public can directly contact the officer or PCSO dedicated to tackling anti-social behaviour, dealing with community concerns and preventing crime where they live. Those neighbourhood officers will respond to local concerns within a maximum of 72 hours, keeping individual residents up to date with progress to solve problems and keeping communities fully informed about priorities for their area. Durham Constabulary has also appointed a dedicated anti-social behaviour lead, who will co-ordinate attempts to tackle the issue across the force area. (Image: Durham Constabulary) Chief Constable Rachel Bacon said: 'People have a right to feel safe in their own communities and to be able to live a life free from crime and anti-social behaviour. 'Neighbourhood policing is at the heart of everything the public consistently tell us they want to see us deliver. 'Our communities want us to tackle crime and prevent anti-social behaviour, protect the vulnerable and reduce the number of victims. 'That is why we are putting more officers back on the beat, making a real difference where you live.' Over the last 12 months, recorded crime has been reduced by three per cent across County Durham and Darlington, including significant reductions in residential burglary, down by a third with 200 fewer burglaries, and a 13pc reduction in shoplifting. Read next ... more crime news from The Northern Echo by New Durham police chief pledges more officers on the streets Durham and Darlington neighbourhood to have designated police officers Coxhoe Parish Council receives £7k CCTV grant from PCC The Chief Constable added: 'We have delivered on our promise that every resident of County Durham and Darlington will have a named, accessible officer who they can raise concerns with, highlight priorities for action in their area and view progress to solve those problems. 'We still have more to do, not least recruiting and deploying those extra officers we want to see on the ground. 'But we are already seeing results and as we move forward, I'm confident we will make a real difference in all our communities.'
BBC News
01-08-2025
- General
- BBC News
Derby indoor play centre equipment was 'sanitised once a month'
Equipment at an indoor play area in Derby was "only sanitised on a monthly basis", a council report has Valley, in Shaftesbury Street South, was inspected in November and received a rating of one out of five, meaning major improvement is necessary. Derby City Council, which released the full inspection report on Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information request, said the rating will remain until a reinspection.A spokesperson at Fun Valley said they recognised the report and have since made significant improvements. In the initial report, council inspectors raised a number of concerns around food storage, cleaning arrangements and a lack of hot water in the kitchen's washbasin. The report said an employee told the inspector that play equipment was cleaned on a "daily basis" but only with a "damp cloth" and would only "sanitise equipment on a monthly basis".The inspector said: "This is not acceptable as a damp cloth would not kill any harmful viruses or bacteria and will only spread any potential bacteria or viruses around the play area. "You must ensure you use a suitable product to kill harmful bacteria and viruses when cleaning the equipment on a daily basis."Inspectors also said there was "inadequate separation between raw foods and ready to eat foods" within fridges and the said they found defrosted raw sausages sitting directly on top of a packet of bread rolls, and raw eggs were also stored on the top shelf of the fridge above ready to eat surfaces were being cleaned, they were "not being sanitised", according to the inspection. Improvements made The company, which also has locations in Leicester, Nottingham and Bolton, said they did not dispute the report, adding significant improvements have since been made, and they are awaiting a new inspection.A spokesperson said: "The council highlighted a number of issues that needed improving."They gave us a list of things to do and we have done that."We are confident another inspection will highlight these improvements and increase our score. It is very important to us that we have a high mark."A spokesperson for Derby City Council said: "Since the initial inspection in November 2024, officers have revisited the premises to ensure the identified issues have been addressed."Regardless of any improvements made, a business will retain its original food hygiene rating until its next routine inspection, unless it applies for and completes a rescore inspection, as per national policy."
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How the world's nuclear watchdog monitors facilities around the world – and what it means that Iran kicked it out
What happens when a country seeks to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program? Every peaceful program starts with a promise not to build a nuclear weapon. Then, the global community verifies that stated intent via the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Once a country signs the treaty, the world's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides continuous and technical proof that the country's nuclear program is peaceful. The IAEA ensures that countries operate their programs within the limits of nonproliferation agreements: low enrichment and no reactor misuse. Part of the agreement allows the IAEA to inspect nuclear-related sites, including unannounced surprise visits. These are not just log reviews. Inspectors know what should and should not be there. When the IAEA is not on site, cameras, tamper-revealing seals on equipment and real-time radiation monitors are working full-time to gather or verify inside information about the program's activities. Safeguards toolkit The IAEA safeguards toolkit is designed to detect proliferation activities early. Much of the work is fairly technical. The safeguards toolkit combines physical surveillance, material tracking, data analytics and scientific sampling. Inspectors are chemists, physicists and nuclear engineers. They count spent fuel rods in a cooling pond. They check tamper seals on centrifuges. Often, the inspectors walk miles through hallways and corridors carrying heavy equipment. That's how the world learned in April 2021 about Iran pushing uranium enrichment from reactor-fuel-grade to near-weapons-grade levels. IAEA inspectors were able to verify that Iran was feeding uranium into a series of centrifuges designed to enrich the uranium from 5%, used for energy programs, to 60%, which is a step toward the 90% level used in nuclear weapons. Around the facilities, whether for uranium enrichment or plutonium processing, closed-circuit surveillance cameras monitor for undeclared materials or post-work activities. Seals around the facilities provide evidence that uranium gas cylinders have not been tampered with or that centrifuges operate at the declared levels. Beyond seals, online enrichment monitors allow inspectors to look inside of centrifuges for any changes in the declared enrichment process. When the inspectors are on-site, they collect environmental swipes: samples of nuclear materials on surfaces, in dust or in the air. These can reveal if uranium has been enriched to levels beyond those allowed by the agreement. Or if plutonium, which is not used in nuclear power plants, is being produced in a reactor. Swipes are precise. They can identify enrichment levels from a particle smaller than a speck of dust. But they take time, days or weeks. Inspectors analyze the samples at the IAEA's laboratories using sophisticated equipment called mass spectrometers. In addition to physical samples, IAEA inspectors look at the logs of material inventories. They look for diversion of uranium or plutonium from normal process lines, just like accountants trace the flow of finances, except that their verification is supported by the ever-watching online monitors and radiation sensors. They also count items of interest and weigh them for additional verification of the logs. Beyond accounting for materials, IAEA inspectors verify that the facility matches the declared design. For example, if a country is expanding centrifuge halls to increase its enrichment capabilities, that's a red flag. Changes to the layout of material processing laboratories near nuclear reactors could be a sign that the program is preparing to produce unauthorized plutonium. Losing access Iran announced on June 28, 2025, that it has ended its cooperation with the IAEA. It removed the monitoring devices, including surveillance cameras, from centrifuge halls. This move followed the news by the IAEA that Iran's enrichment activities are well outside of allowed levels. Iran now operates sophisticated uranium centrifuges, like models IR-6 and IR-9. Removing IAEA access means that the international community loses insight into how quickly Iran's program can accumulate weapon-grade uranium, or how much it has produced. Also lost is information about whether the facility is undergoing changes for proliferation purposes. These processes are difficult to detect with external surveillance, like satellites, alone. An alternative to the uranium enrichment path for producing nuclear weapons material is plutonium. Plutonium can't be mined, it has to be produced in a nuclear reactor. Iran built a reactor capable of producing plutonium, the IR-40 Heavy Water Research Reactor at the Arak Nuclear Complex. Iran modified the Arak reactor under the now-defunct Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to make plutonium production less likely. During the June 2025 missile attacks, Israel targeted Arak's facilities with the aim of eliminating the possibility of plutonium production. With IAEA access suspended, it won't be possible to see what happens inside the facility. Can the reactor be used for plutonium production? Although a lengthier process than the uranium enrichment path, plutonium provides a parallel path to uranium enrichment for developing nuclear weapons. Continuity of knowledge North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors in 2009. Within a few years, they restarted activities related to uranium enrichment and plutonium production in the Yongbyon reactor. The international community's information about North Korea's weapons program now relies solely on external methods: satellite images, radioactive particles like xenon – airborne fingerprints of nuclear activities – and seismic data. What is lost is the continuity of the knowledge, a chain of verification over time. Once the seals are broken or cameras are removed, that chain is lost, and so is confidence about what is happening at the facilities. When it comes to IAEA inspections, there is no single tool that paints the whole picture. Surveillance plus sampling plus accounting provide validation and confidence. Losing even one weakens the system in the long term. The existing safeguards regime is meant to detect violations. The countries that sign the nonproliferation treaty know that they are always watched, and that plays a deterrence role. The inspectors can't just resume the verification activities after some time if access is lost. Future access won't necessarily enable inspectors to clarify what happened during the gap. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Anna Erickson, Georgia Institute of Technology Read more: Why the US bombed a bunch of metal tubes − a nuclear engineer explains the importance of centrifuges to Iranian efforts to build nuclear weapons What damage did the US do to Iran's nuclear program? Why it's so hard to know Iran and the US appear unlikely to reach a new nuclear deal – leaving everyone more unsafe Anna Erickson receives funding from DOE National Nuclear Security Administration.
