Our Teams
Within the Economy & Environment Directorate we have a number of dedicated teams. Please read more information about each team below.
Passenger Transport
Passenger Transport are responsible for the statutory home to school transport for Mainstream, colleges and SEN schools. This includes;
· Route planning
· Procurement
· Customer administration
· Budget management
· Compliance monitoring
· Transport applications
· Complaints
· Section 19 permits
· Pass printing and ordering
· Safeguarding
· Taxi Panel (for misconduct)
Public Transport;
· Timetabling
· Administration
· Manage bus stops/shelters
· Procurement
· Manage subsidised and concessionary travel
Trading Standards
Trading Standards deal with over 200 different pieces of legislation which at any point in time could receive a complaint or request for business advice. There is a national call centre (CACS) for consumer complaints which then refers appropriate complaints to the service either being the consumer lives in Herefordshire or the business operates from Herefordshire.
Trading Standards services include:
· Product safety standards and enforcement,
· Food and feed standards and enforcement (including registrations and approvals),
· Consumer rights and fair trading guidance and enforcement (including regulation of age restricted products),
· Licensing of explosives and petroleum,
· Animal health, welfare and control (incorporating dog warden service),
· Community protection and environmental crime enforcement,
· The regulation of school attendance and absence.
Environmental Health
All environmental health services normally embedded within a district council, as well as the county council functions associated with the management of the county’s closed landfill sites.
Environmental Health services include:
· Food safety and infection prevention and control enforcement,
· Housing standards enforcement,
· Workplace health and safety enforcement,
· Environmental and public health enforcement (including air and private water supply quality),
· Management of closed landfill sites.
Gypsy and Traveller Site Management and Unauthorised Encampment’s
The gypsy and traveller officer manages six permanent residential Gypsy and Traveller sites and operates an unauthorised encampment service in respect of occupations of council owned or managed land.
The gypsy and traveller officer manages the allocation of pitches, site visits, organises the reporting of repairs, provides assistance with benefit claims and manages tenancies, including collection of arrears.
There are currently 56 pitches which individuals can apply for, however, there is always a waiting list and applicants are scored according to a points system. The sites are based in Luston, Watery Lane Hereford, Grafton Lane Hereford, Pembridge, Bosbury and Bromyard.
The officer works flexibly between visits in district, home and the office base at Plough Lane.
Transportation
The key role for the service area is to set out the transportation strategy for the council across all relevant service areas and with partner organisations. The main areas of interest are:
– Local Transport Plan – a 20 year transport strategy for Herefordshire that sets out policies and programmes for future implementation and provides the framework for HC and partners to bid for future funding opportunities.
– Herefordshire Strategic Transport Model (HSTM) – a tool to be used by the council to develop major transport infrastructure proposals and land use plans over the next 20 years. Also could be used by developers to demonstrate the impact of and design mitigation for major development proposals.
– Major infrastructure planning eg Eastern River Crossing and Link Road
Involvement in local, regional and national transport projects and programmes
Strategic and Neighbourhood Planning
Our planning and building control service is taking centre stage promoting the council’s spatial priorities for growth. We are making significant investments in our systems and processes, have recently won a national award, have a new service management team, have an ambitious local plan programme, are a national exemplar for neighbourhood planning and one of the UKs lead authorities in promoting phosphate mitigation.
Markets, Fairs and Street Trading
Street Trading
Regulates and controls street trading activity and pavement café through issuing of highways amenity licences,
The letting of promotional space in High Town for displays and events by commercial, not for profit and charitable and work closely with HBID (Hereford Business Improvement District)
The service currently licence 25 street traders and 20 pavement café in the county, as well as manage and co-ordinate over 100 bookings for High Town each year.
Markets
Responsible for organising the retail markets in Herefordshire.
In High Town there are currently retails markets held Wednesday and Saturday.
The service also facilitates the annual May fairs in Leominster and Hereford.
In 2023 the Hereford May fair will have been coming to the city for 902 years.
Development Management
Determination of planning and other applications; post decision discharge of conditions; monitoring of planning obligations (s106) including collection of contributions for use by other HC services delivering mitigation; and the investigation of alleged breaches of planning control with appropriate delivery of a wide range of discretionary functions related to planning activity. Includes technical support team carrying out key parts of the process such as validating applications and uploading comments made on applications.
Building Control
Delivery of the full range of statutory services under the Building Regulations, including plan checking and site inspections, dangerous structures call-out service, plus street naming and numbering (SNN). Includes technical support team carrying out key parts of the process such as validating applications.
Bereavement Services
Responsible for Hereford Crematorium, cemeteries in Hereford, Leominster, Kington and Wigmore as well as three closed churchyards at Holmer, Stretton Sugwas and Lugwardine. The service is managed from the crematorium office in Westfaling Street and supported by BBLP who provide grounds maintenance work and grave digging.
The crematorium has rebuilt 10 years ago and continues to meet the demand having recently upgraded to digital music, tribute screens and live web links.
Works directly with funeral directors and members of the public and facilitates funeral services (burials and cremations) as well as providing memorial options for both the cemetery and crematorium.
The service will assist in public health and family arranged funerals as well as family history and genealogy searches.
An open day is held once a year giving the public an opportunity to take a tour of the crematorium and dispel the myths that so often are held rather firmly in peoples mind.
In 2018 the service carried out 1740 cremations and 215 burials.
The metals recycling scheme was set up to recycle metals recovered from cremated remains. To date this scheme has raised £84,000 for local charities in Herefordshire.
Licensing and Taxi Licensing
Each licensing authority is responsible for developing its own local policies, conditions of licence, processing applications and carrying out regulatory action for those individuals or businesses that fail to comply.
Licensing is key to help provide a safe environment for residents and visitors by administering an effective licensing regime with public safety at the heart of the service. Advising and supporting businesses to achieve the necessary licensing requirements.
The team covers over 30 different licence types including, premise licences for the sale or supply of alcohol, gambling activities, taxi and private hire, animal activities, caravan sites, skin piercing, massage and tattooing and charitable collections.
Each officer will work in specialist areas, but will also have general knowledge about all licensing functions within the team. All team members will work closely with applicants assisting them through the application process and supporting them with the requirements of the licence once granted.
The team works flexibly between home and the office base at Plough Lane.
Directorate Services Team
Delivery of HC’s duties and responsibilities as a Local Lead Flood Authority (LLFA).
Commissioner for HC (alongside Bruce Evans) for Capital and Reactive Drainage services on the Highway Public Realm Contract (Annex 7 Managing Water on the Network)
Support Cabinet Member for Transport and Infrastructure in relation to ‘Land drainage, flood alleviation, rivers and waterways’.
Delivery of the Herefordshire Natural Flood Management (NFM) Project.
Support the Economy and Environment Directorate Leadership Team on a wide range of issues.
Community Protection
Enforcement of environmental crime and antisocial behaviour including:
Fly tipping: Respond to fly tipping incidents and investigate and take enforcement action where possible
Abandoned vehicles: Investigate and remove abandoned vehicles
Stray dogs: Collection, kennelling and rehoming of stray dogs
Littering: Tackle littering on an intelligence led basis and take action where possible
Dog fouling: Tackle dog fouling on an intelligence led basis and take action where possible
Antisocial behaviour: Tackle ASB using community protection notices, public spaces protection orders
Children’s Enforcement
Enforcement of school absence: Referrals are received from the schools regarding children who are absent from school for either unauthorised holiday or long term absence.
Licensing of children’s entertainment and work permits: Licenses issued for the entertainment itself, chaperones, the child but also exemptions and body of persons. Work permits are issued for children to have a part time job.
Enforcement of children’s entertainment and work permits: Enforcement checks made to ensure that the entertainment activities are complying with legislation and that children are not working without a permit.
Animal Health
Animal disease control and response to outbreaks: Respond to disease outbreaks such as Avian Flu, Foot and Mouth, Anthrax, Rabies plus others. All have different response requirements and have a council emergency response plan.
All controls on livestock from farm to in slaughterhouse: Enforcement of legislation on farm, in markets and in the slaughterhouse up to point of killing,TB controls, passports, cleansing of vehicles enforcement where necessary
Animal welfare: On farm, welfare of animals in transit, welfare at time of killing enforcement where necessary
Animal by products: Ensuring that deadstock is suitably stored and disposed of in correct manner and enforcement where necessary
Feed Hygiene: Carry out Feed hygiene inspections and enforcement for feed products on farm in conjunction with Trading standards
Highways
The Highways team work alongside private developers and Council colleagues to enable residential and commercial development across Herefordshire through the provision of new or improved roads and junctions, whilst working with our partner contractor to oversee a whole life approach to our assets.
Day to day the team are responsible for ensuring that planning applications are assessed, technical approvals are granted, works are supervised to ensure delivery quality, safety inspections are completed, potholes fixed and annual surfacing programmes produced so that we know where we need to invest in our carriageways and footways. From time to time, it is also necessary to oversee the wholesale replacement of assets such as bridges and other structures that are coming to the end of their life. If that isn’t enough, the team are also responsible for ensuring the highway network is resilient and can cope with extreme weather conditions including hot weather, flooding, snow and ice, or other major incidents where we link in with key stakeholders such as National Highways, the Police and Fire service to keep our those in Herefordshire safe, whilst keeping the highway network moving with as minimal impact as possible.
If you have an eye for detail and want to help Herefordshire grow then this is the team for you!
Sustainability & Climate Change
The Sustainability and Climate Change Team works to keep the Council on track with its target of reaching net zero carbon by 2030. We instigate and implement projects to reach net zero, while also monitoring the Council’s overall progress and working with other services across the Council to ensure the delivery of their projects and programmes is in-line with the Council’s net zero and nature-rich ambitions.
We have installed Solar PV on many of our buildings and schools, introduced electric pool vehicles for staff to use and upgraded Council-owned buildings to make them energy efficient.
We like to think outside of the box and some of our innovative projects include being the first County in the Country to change to 100% LED Street lighting and introducing the popular Beryl Bike hire scheme in Hereford City.
Our Choose how you move project promotes walking and cycling in the County, including various schemes such as Walk to School, Bikeability, Park and Cycle, adult cycle lessons and Get Walking virtual tours.
We are currently working to expand the Electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the County, offering grant schemes to help retrofit some of the County’s more energy inefficient homes, awarding local businesses grants to support them to reduce carbon and assisting the Herefordshire Climate and Nature Board to meet the County’s net zero target through the ‘Greener Footprints’ behaviour change campaign.
Waste Management
Management of waste collection and disposal contracts, provision of waste management services to all residents and just under 2000 businesses as requested and education/behavioural change of residents with the aim to reduce waste, increase reuse and recycling.
Pest Control
The pest control service is able to offer residents, business or property management companies a range of contract services to help with an existing pest problem, or to provide preventative measures to ensure infestations are detected and dealt with before they pose a threat to clients, staff or your stock.
We provide pest control treatments for mice, moles, rats, bedbugs, cockroaches, clothes moths, garden ants, pharaoh’s ants, animal fleas, stored product insects, carpet beetles, wasp nests.
The pest control officers also provide advice regarding necessary work to prevent pests. All work will only be carried out if it is appropriate and in some circumstances treatments will not be carried out.
Pest control officers work mostly in the district but can access office facilities as necessary.
Technical Support
This team provides support for the Environmental Health, Trading Standards, Licensing, Gypsy Traveller and Pest Control teams.
The Technical Support Team is the first point of contact into Environmental Health & Trading Standards (EHTS) service and provides comprehensive information and advice to enable and ensure that enquiries are responded to and recorded in a timely and appropriate manner.
Officers in this team have a varied workload which also includes, processing of payments and invoicing, processing prosecution files, liaising with the Courts, data inputting, issuing certificates, administrative support and developing processes for use within the services.
The team will allocate enquiries either directly to the EHTS teams within EHTS or by signposting to other teams within the Council. In fulfilling this duty, the Technical Support Team will consider the people they are communicating with on a case by case basis and seek to provide advice towards the types of information and/or advice that may be particularly relevant to them.
Cleansing and Soft Landscapes
The Cleansing and Soft Landscapes team are responsible for keeping Herefordshire’s highway network and parks and open spaces clean and green.
The team own and manage the Council’s tree stock and over 7 million square meters of parks, open spaces, landscaping and verges which make up part of the Public Realm. Our service area is extremely visible and we and our partner contractors work hard to keep things neat and tidy, from grass cutting and maintenance through to litter bin emptying, picking and sweeping, alongside arboriculture maintenance and inspections, safety inspections and improvements to our play areas.
If you like seeing the fruits of your labours then this is the team for you!
Traffic Management
The Traffic Management and Public Rights of Way Team are responsible for delivering excellent public services to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the county’s network of circa 3,200km of highways and some 3,380km public rights of way.
To help achieve this we work closely with our public sector partners, businesses, partner contractors, the voluntary sector, and communities to improve the lives of the people we serve.
On a day to day basis members of the team are involved with projects, temporary events, inspections and enforcement or general enquiries relating to the network. This could vary from the inspection of a part of our Public Rights of Way network through to the collection and analysis of traffic data, the introduction of new parking controls or speed limits or working alongside our transport planning team to develop and implement sustainable transport strategies to encourage greater trips through walking, cycling and public transport.
If you enjoy getting out and about, talking to people and resolving problems then this is the team for you!