As a council we have to be prepared to deal with any kind of environmental emergency or major incident.

The Public Protection and Planning Service provides assistance, mainly with environmental concerns surrounding these events. We have staff on 24-hour call-out to deal with serious emergency incidents.

This work involves maintaining a state of emergency preparedness for all contingencies. We exercise call-out plans and rehearse different emergency scenarios. Our role is centred on pollution control, maintaining food and water supplies, and pest and dog control. We also operate a weekend call-out service for food poisoning outbreaks reported by hospitals and GPs.

One new area of work is rabies prevention, linked to the opening up of some ports and airports in the UK for pet travel through the 'Pilot Pet Travel Scheme'. Though Teesport is not involved in the scheme, we are gearing up to deal with animals brought through the port by mistake -- so called 'illegal landings' -- and we are ready to deal with any rabies scare.

Anyone wanting to find out more about the Pilot Pet Travel Scheme can do so by calling the National Pets Helpline on 0870 241 1710.