A DISTRICT council's environmental health department has been condemned by the Audit Commission.

In a damning report, the service operated by Teesdale is described as being of "poor 'no star' quality", with little hope of improvement.

The report by the best value inspection service accuses the department of not fully meeting its statutory obligations in relation to inspections.

They include food hygiene inspections in high risk premises, risk analysis of private water supplies and the licensing of riding establishments. It also found the authority was failing to meet targets for health and safety risk assessments.

The report speaks of the poor quality of work, inconsistency in inspections and accident investigations and a failure to identify links between incidents and inspection programmes, leading to re-occurrence.

The inspectors illustrated their concerns via case studies. One concerned the authority's handling of a fatal accident at a local works in 1997.

Doubt as to whether the premises fell under the responsibility of the council or the Health and Safety Executive was not resolved. But the inspectors say that, following a verdict of accidental death, the authority was free to pursue action.

It sought a barrister's opinion, which indicated that there was a legal case to be answered by the company and it was not too late to pursue prosecution. However, a corporate team decided not to prosecute.

Although there were minutes of team meetings, no minutes could be produced for the meeting that closed the case.

The verbal reasons for the decision appeared to be directly contradicted by the barrister's opinion, leaving the inspectors unable to clearly establish why prosecution was not pursued.

Another study concerned cheese-making premises, where sampling identified an e-coli bacterium in 1997. The council had a statutory duty to inspect the premises in line with the identified risk but there were no records of food safety inspections between 1997 and a subsequent incident in March 1999.

The report noted that, during the course of the inspection, the authority had demonstrated a will and commitment to identify and encourage change and improvement, drawing up an action plan that, if fully implemented, would address the poor performance.

The inspectors have called on the council to take urgent action to address the serious under-performance of the department, producing a list of recommendations.

They include a "realistic prioritised and properly-resourced programme of inspections of food premises, occupational health and safety premises, private water supplies and licenses".

The inspection report is due to be published in full on the Audit Commission web site at www.bestvalueinspections.gov.uk in the near future