Latest headlines

Have Your Say on the Statement of Licensing Policy. West Berkshire Council is inviting residents, businesses, councillors, relevant organisations and statutory partners to comment on its updated Draft Statement of Licensing Policy.

Consultation on ‘Knowledge Test’ for Bracknell Taxi Drivers. We want your input. Bracknell Forest Council is currently running a consultation on whether or not the geographical element of the ‘knowledge test’ should be retained as part of the application process for hackney carriage and private hire drivers.

Counterfeit Goods at Car Boot Sales. Our Trading Standards Officers are actively investigating reports of fake goods being sold at local car boot sales. Part of these investigations will include visiting local car boot sales and test purchasing items.

Free Online Age Restricted Sales Training. Are you a retailer? Are you based in Bracknell Forest, West Berkshire or Wokingham? Would you like to understand more about your responsibilities and what the law says with regards to age restricted sales?

Almost 21 million reports have been made to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS), resulting in the removal of over 235,000 malicious websites. SERS was launched by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the City of London Police in April 2020 to enable the public to forward suspicious emails to an automated system that scans them for malicious links. Since its launch, almost 21 million reports have been made to the service.

Trading Standards Officers Seize 787 Illegal Vapes at 6 Stores.  As part of The Public Protection Partnership Vaping Education Campaign Trading Standards officers have seized illegal vapes from stores across the three districts. In total officers visited 24 stores, across the 3 districts. From the 24, 6 stores were found to be selling non-compliant vapes and a total of 787 illegal vapes were seized.

Launch of the new district wide Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP). Launch of the new district wide Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP) on Thursday 6th July at the Kennet Centre, Newbury. Starts at 1:30pm with an address from Cllr. Jeremy Cottam Chairman of West Berkshire Council.

Young Consumer Influencer of the Year Competition. Young Consumer Influencer of the Year is a national competition that has been developed by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) working in partnership with England Illegal Money Lending Team, Consumer Empowerment Alliance and Experian. The competition is designed for those aged 13–17 and we are supporting schools and youth groups to help educate young people about illegal money lending, product safety and underage sales of fireworks

How to Avoid Scams on your Holiday Booking. Have you booked your summer holiday yet? If not you might want to take a look at the advice from our Trading Standards team to make sure your holiday booking is scam free.

Call Blockers Estimated to have Prevented 80 Scams. Since 2017 The Public Protection Partnership have installed 97 call blockers to protect older and vulnerable people from nuisance and scam phone calls. So far 49,316 calls have been blocked, and we estimate that 80 scams have been prevented.