Council conducted Wetherspoons coronavirus ‘investigation’ on day issue became public knowledge

Wrexham Council visited the Wetherspoons pub that is the centre of a coronavirus ‘cluster’ in early August and found it was ‘satisfactory’, and issued an “Improvement Notice” after an investigation on the day the local issue was made public.

Yesterday Public Health Wales and Wrexham Council issued a statement that said following the identification of a small number of cases associated with the staff of the North and South Wales Bank pub in Wrexham town centre, an Improvement Notice has been served on the premises by Wrexham Council’s Public Protection Department.

The statement referred to an “investigation” by Wrexham Council that revealed “a lack of adherence to the guidelines in staff areas”.

We asked Wrexham Council when the investigation took place, and if the answer was after Monday 17th of August (the date we understand the local authority was first aware) we enquired why the premises was not proactively inspected, or if it was, how such issues were missed and what would be changed.

Wrexham Council say the venue was visited twice, once on August 3rd as part of a wider visit of all premises in town, and then on the Thursday 20th. Wrexham.com published the first report about the issue at the pub on Thursday 20th.

Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships, Public Protection and Community Safety, said: “As soon as the Welsh Government announced that premises could start to re-open officers formed a Safety Advisory Group to review the measures put in place to protect and keep Wrexham safe. This group meets weekly and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

“All Wrexham town centre pubs and bars were visited by Public Protection Officers in the first week of August. These visits identified a number of establishment who were in need of further advice and guidance. Subsequent visits to some premises unfortunately saw the serving of two Compliance Notices and an Improvement Notice which have been previously publicised.”

“The North and South Wales Bank was visited by Officers on August 3rd who found the measures in place to be satisfactory. A further visit on August 20th found that the measures put in place for customers were satisfactory but were unfortunately not being adhered to in relation to the staff only areas. As a result of this visit an Improvement Notice was issued.”

We asked if there was a rolling programme of inspections of venues, and also enquired how big the team involved is, and how many premises they are covering.

The council explained, “It is imperative that all residents, businesses and employees in Wrexham follow guidelines and rules to keep Wrexham safe. The Safety Advisory Group is due to meet again later this week and will review measures taken over the last week and evaluate any further intelligence received in relation to the Wrexham town centre night time economy in order to ensure that we keep Wrexham safe.”

“Our Public Protection Officers over the last few months have undertaken targeted interventions of establishments, which range from visits to pubs, bars and retail premises ensuring social distancing measures are implemented. Our officers have also undertaken patrols around the County Borough during the lockdown ensuring establishments were closed as per Welsh Government requirements.”

“In total these intervention and checks now total 617 to date with 366 of these in relation to social distancing. We have also received 314 enquiries from the general public in relation to social distancing and other Covid-19 related concerns.”

“Our Officers will continue to work with key partners and the public to respond to enquiries and to undertake targeted interventions in order to keep Wrexham safe.”

“Anyone who is concerned about social distancing in premises can report them at [email protected] ”

We also queried a claim by the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, and Wrexham resident, Arfon Jones about places that ‘dont do track and trace’. Mr Jones publicly raised concerns about Wrexham Council’s Ty Pawb venue:

Few places in Wrecsam dont do track and trace including @wrexhamcbc at @TyPawb I thought it was a legal requirement now? @LiamRandallLDR

— Arfon Jones 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@ArfonJ) August 22, 2020

Wrexham Council responded, “The responsibility to ensure track and trace details are collected sits with the traders within Ty Pawb, all traders have been informed of the legal requirement to collect and retain information and to help with this we have created and distributed a collection slip for them to use. We have spoken again with the food court traders and asked that they ensure that each customer fills out the slip.

“If Mr Jones has any specific concerns he should raise them with Trading Standards.”