Two pubs served with Improvement Notices
Poster information
Posted on: Wednesday 18 November 2020
Two pubs in Pencoed have been served with Improvement Notices by enforcement officers after failing to ensure social distancing could be maintained on the premises.
At the Britannia on Hendre Road, concerns were raised that more than four people from four different households were sitting together in one area after officers visited on Saturday, November 14.
Similar concerns were highlighted at the Chatterton Arms, also on Hendre Road, with officers observing that appropriate space wasn’t being maintained as customers from more than four households were sat together.
Councillor Dhanisha Patel, the Bridgend County Borough Council cabinet member whose portfolio includes Shared Regulatory Services, said: “The Premises Improvement Notices were issued on Saturday (November 14) – if the pubs make the improvements needed within 48 hours, the notices will be lifted.
“Businesses must meet their responsibilities to keep staff and customers safe during the Covid-19 pandemic and officers from Shared Regulatory Services have been proactively visiting premises across the county borough and offering support to help them to do so.”
Welsh Government regulations require people who are responsible for premises to take all reasonable measures to ensure a two-metre distance can be maintained between people who are on the premises or are waiting to go in, and to provide information to anyone entering or working there about how to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus.
They must also take other reasonable measures to minimise the risk of exposure, primarily by improving hygiene and minimising face-to-face interaction, especially in situations where two-metre distancing isn’t possible.
Premises Improvement Notices specify the measures that need to be taken to meet the regulations within a certain time limit, usually 48 hours. If the business fails to comply, enforcement officers can issue a Premises Closure Notice, requiring the premises, or part of it, to be closed for up to 14 days.
In some circumstances, enforcement officers can close the premises immediately without having served an improvement notice, but this would only be where there has been a serious breach of regulations.