NEARLY three quarters of businesses assessed in the last year were abiding by Covid-19 rules, a Newport council report has revealed.

Since March 25, 2020, officers in Newport have completed 3,000 inspections to ensure businesses where complying with rules related to Covid-19 such as social distancing.

South Wales Argus: Newport Council on Covid compliance

Of these, 74 per cent were found to be abiding by regulations, 16 per cent became compliant after being advised and 10 per cent required further investigation.

The council report also said that businesses were provided with advice on 2,500 occasions.

Many of the inspections of licensed premises were with Gwent Police and a special community safety warden.

What enforcement took place?

During the past year, the city council has issued 45 premises improvement notices, which is the equivalent to 1.5 per cent of all inspections.

Newport council has also issued seven premises closure notices, five fines and 10 compliance notices.

Three licence reviews were also brought forward in relation to compliance with Covid-19 regulations.

These included The Courtyard nightclub and Breeze in Newport. The former had its licence suspended for three months after CCTV evidence showed customers dancing and drinking at the premises and the latter for two weeks after a lack of social distancing resulting in NHS Public Health Wales saying that a number of positive Covid-19 cases attended the bar.

What issues did the council find with supermarkets and food retailers?

During the first lockdown in March 2020, supermarkets and food retailers were among the businesses allowed to reopen.

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In this time, Newport council inspected those businesses deemed essential and therefore allowed to reopen.

The issues found included:

  • Failure to adhere to social distancing requirements.
  • Queue management
  • Poor signage
  • Hygiene safeguards
  • Appropriate one-way systems

How did the council manage the reopening of Newport’s Primark?

When non-essential retail could reopen in Wales, there was the benefit of learning from what happened in England.

It had been well documented that Primark was flooded with customers, which resulted in long queues in many city and town centres.

The report on Covid compliance in Newport says “officers attended the shop and were confident that the systems inside the store were robust but there were concerns over “customers queuing to gain entry”.

The report says: “Officers spoke to the managers at the store, encouraged, and advised them how to organise the queue safely whilst not impeding the entry to other stores nearby and members of the public walking by.”

Where can you view the report?

To see the council’s report in full visit https://democracy.newport.gov.uk/documents/s19319/Scrutiny%20Report%20COVID%20Enforcement.pdf?LLL=0