The Trading Standards Department from Darlington Borough Council has been awarded prestigious government funding to carry out a safety campaign on the region’s nightlights.
The award comes from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and will allow the council to fund the project to test the safety of plug in nightlights. The project will be particularly looking for the nightlight’s safety, construction and marking.
At a value of £10,000 the award means that this project can go ahead and successfully carry out these checks. This is an important project when considering these types of electrical appliances are mainly aimed at children and are often plugged in near to a child’s bed and switched on while they, and possibly the rest of the household, are sleeping.
Darlington Council successfully acquired funding last year and the year before for £15,000 and £10,000 to test the safety of toys, cosmetic products and smoke alarms, so this latest award is the next step in the council’s electrical safety plans for the area.
Darlington Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration, Chris McEwan, said that the council is always working to find new ways to use the resources at its disposal whilst sourcing funding to be able to carry out new projects.
“The role of the Trading Standards Department is critical in creating a level playing field in which honest business can trade. Building on external partnerships and securing funding are increasingly important and offer a breadth of capacity to its operations, in this case ensuring that products on sale to consumers in Darlington are safe.”
He went on to congratulate the team for securing the funding in order to help ensure the safety of the Darlington people.
What do you think of Darlington’s ambitions and achievement with electrical safety, do you think more councils should follow their example?
Written by Sara Thomson
