Environmental health engagement

Environmental Health Officers play a vital role in protecting public health and maintaining community well-being. They work across various areas to ensure environments are safe, regulations are met, and risks are minimised

Food Safety

Our food team checks places where food is made or sold to ensure it’s safe for people to eat. After inspections, businesses get a hygiene rating from 0 (needs urgent improvement) to 5 (very good).

If a place gets a low rating (0 or 1), we don’t shut it down unless there’s a serious danger like rats or sewage. Instead, we work with the business to fix the issues by giving advice or sending legal notices. Businesses can ask and pay for an earlier reinspection to improve their rating.

We also offer food safety training and investigate food complaints. Officers visit businesses, take food samples, and test kitchens for bacteria.

In England, food businesses don’t have to show their hygiene rating, but the correct rating must always be displayed if they choose to show it. You can find ratings at Food Hygiene Ratings.

If you have concerns about a food business, email: commercialservices@cheshireeast.gov.uk

For more information on food safety see our food safety page.

Health and Safety

Our Health and Safety team makes sure workers and customers stay safe by checking businesses follow safety rules.

We help businesses do risk assessments and investigate accidents or work-related illnesses. If needed, we take action, like sending legal notices or starting prosecutions.

The team inspects places like tattoo shops and swimming pools to make they’re safe. If there are problems, we give businesses 21 days to fix them unless it’s a major risk.

If you have any queries or issues relating to Health and Safety, email: commercialservices@cheshireeast.gov.uk

Environmental Protection

Environmental protection handle a wide variety or work including:

• Nuisance complaints for example, noise, odour, dust, or smoke 
• Air quality checks
• Environmental permits for certain businesses
• Safety of private water supplies
• Contaminated Land
• Public funerals and exhumations
• Pest control

The team uses special tools to check noise and air quality and takes samples for testing. Officers inspect businesses like dry cleaners and vehicle resprayers to ensure they follow license rules. They take action, if needed, to improve conditions. When reviewing planning applications, the team suggests measures to manage noise, air quality, and other factors to prevent harm to neighbours or the community.

If you have an environmental protection issue email: environmentalprotection2@cheshireeast.gov.uk.

For more information or to request a formal investigation into an alleged noise nuisance see the noise nuisance page.

Public Health

Public Health reduces health inequalities and helps residents live healthier, longer lives. Where we live, how we live, and the choices we make all shape our health.

The Cheshire East Public Health team achieves this through four key areas:

• wider determinants: the wider influences on our health and wellbeing such as the surrounding environment around us. 
• commissioning: the contracting and development of local services such as sexual health, health checks and substance misuse.
• intelligence: the interpretation of data-sets to indicate local need – commissioning decisions are led from this.
• business: the functions of governance, finance and asset management.

Environmental Health focuses heavily on tackling food poisoning. When someone is diagnosed with a food-related illness, an officer contacts them to investigate the cause.

In most cases food poisoning is very unlikely to be caused by the last place you ate. This is because it can take a significant amount of time for the levels of bacteria or virus to be high enough to make you ill. The only way to be certain of food poisoning, is to submit a sample to your GP and if you are found to have been ill, you will be contacted by your local environmental health team to follow up.

For further information contact: phbusinessteam@cheshireeast.gov.uk

Housing

The Housing Standards team checks homes in Cheshire East to ensure they’re safe and healthy. They look at things like damp, faulty electrics, or weak structures and work with landlords to fix problems.

They also inspect shared housing (HMOs), where people from different households live together, to ensure they meet safety standards.

See the housing standards page for further information. 

Cheshire East Council doesn’t own any rental housing. Most rental homes are owned by private landlords or social housing providers.

For more information email: privatehousing@cheshireeast.gov.uk