74% of Newport businesses Covid compliant last 12 months

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 Covid compliance.

Of these, 74 per cent were found to be compliant, 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.

During the past year, the city council has issued 45 premises improvement notices, which is 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 regulations.

This includes The Courtyard nightclub and Breeze. 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 cases attended the bar.

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

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

The issues found included:

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