I visited West Yorkshire Joint Services and saw the wide range of activities they cover, all in the same building, appropriately refered to as the Tardis. These include tracking down niche tobacco products, which are very harmful to health and contraband and counterfeit tobacco and alcohol. They have a display of these products to help put the message across of the health hazard they pose. They also carry out awareness raising sessions in schools, to counter alcohol misuse. Their Financial Capability project which addresses financial illiteracy, has been delivered to 20,000 young people in schools and also to community groups.
I took the opportunity to observe Consumer Direct, which is very efficient, answering calls within 20 seconds and conclude most queries during the call. They pass the rest to Trading Standards, another service which covers a number of aspects which I was unaware of. Other statutory services include the Public Analyst, which is self-funding, Weights and Measures and Testing; West Yorkshire Archives and West Yorkshire Archaeological Advisory Services. They also carry out community engagement work such as the excellent My Place – Al Hikmah Project which I supported during the summer.
I now have a good understanding of the wide range of work they do, a lot of which is self-funded and subsidises some of the statutory services. The cost of Trading Standards for example, is I understand, one of the lowest in the country. The services they provide, certainly deliver good value and I hope the West Yorkshire Council Leaders understand this when budgets are considered.
No comments:
Post a Comment