Environmental Health Officers (EHO) from as far afield as Scotland have been drafted in to help Powys council due to staffing issues.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Economy, Residents and Communities scrutiny committee on 6 November, the staffing crisis of recent months was revealed.

A performance report for Planning and Regulatory Services for July to the end of September was brought before councillors which showed staff are struggling to get around food establishments in the county to inspect them for hygiene standards.

Committee Chair Cllr Angela Davies said: “I’m sure you are concerned about it all, if you’re not on target, but is there any particular thing that’s going to be challenging going forward?”

Head of Planning and Regulatory Services, Gwilym Davies said: “It’s the food hygiene and food standards that are my biggest concern, mainly because there are not the people out there to undertake the work and it’s exceptionally competitive to get these people.

“It takes years to train people up.”

He explained here had been a “sickness outbreak” in the department and staff time had also been taken up by court cases which had all “impacted on performance.”

Mr Davies continued: “We have been trying to get consultants in because we have been unable to recruit.

“The last group of consultants we were able to get were from Scotland and that just goes to show how few there are all around the country.”

He added that the department was looking to see whether Artificial Intelligence could also help.

Mr Davies stressed: “These things take time, but we will get there and improve our performance.”

He added “there’s only a certain supply [of trained staff] and that’s limited”, with the Health and Safety Executive, Food Standards Agency and the Welsh Government all trying to recruit from the same pool.”