Environmental Health - Noise Officer WCC621217

Job Details:

Salary range: £41,580 - £55,710 per annum 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36 
Contract type: Permanent   
Closing date: 1 June 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF MOHAMAD’S CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS

Public Protection & Licensing in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where people are passionate about keeping our streets safe and clean.  

Take Mohamad, a City Inspector who looks after the Little Venice ward. No two days are the same for Mohamad when he's out and about conducting ward inspections. He could be doing a licensing premises inspection one day and advising businesses and residents on the proper way to handle their waste on another. But before he joined Westminster, he used to work in banking, where he honed his skills in customer service and people management. 

And those skills matters because, while he occasionally needs to enforce the law, his job is mostly about building strong relationships: educating businesses and residents about the impact of certain enviro-crimes. 

One day he came across some unmarked commercial waste dumped on Edgware Road. Following procedures, he investigated this waste, carefully collecting evidence. Yet, despite his attempts to make contact with the commercial premises, the owners wouldn’t cooperate. Digging deeper, he worked collaboratively with different Westminster departments such as businesses rates and licensing, and discovered multiple businesses registered at the same address. After issuing six different notices, three of the business failed to comply and were successfully prosecuted. 

So while Mohamad’s successfully swapped his financial know-how for expertise in local authority legislation, it’s his people skills and powers of persuasion he’s still proudest of. 

The Role:

As an Environmental Health (Noise) Officer you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. Focused on using your specialist environmental health knowledge to improve the lives of everyone who works, lives and visits in our borough, you’ll respond quickly and effectively to concerns raised by members of our communities, prioritising those that have the highest impact. Committed to providing excellent customer service, understanding people’s needs and concerns and resolving complex complaints, it will be your task to identify areas of risk to the public, educate others on the impact of their actions and if necessary, use your enforcement powers to stop antisocial behaviour.

We’ll expect you to deliver a positive and proactive approach to ensuring compliance, help businesses and individuals understand and meet regulatory requirements, and ensure the highest levels of public health by providing expert advice to businesses, residents and visitors. Always responding to our statutory inspection duties in respect of environmental health legislation, your guidance will allow us to support the resolution of issues and help others increase their knowledge and expertise.

A key part of this role will involve undertaking project-based work that develops our approach to environmental health, improves policies and procedures, and ensures we deliver a first class service. Dedicated to liaising, consulting and communicating on the latest plans and projects with council and external colleagues, you’ll also help to champion our approach to improving public health and wellbeing by using training courses and professional development to grow your expertise.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information. 

About You:

With well developed experience of responding to environmental health related complaints, you’ll have worked in a customer facing role that provided education and advice and used regulatory powers to effect change. A collaborative team worker and capable of working with a diverse range of agencies and professionals, you’ll be skilled at listening carefully to other points of view and influencing behaviour by sharing knowledge and outlining consequences.

You should have experience of case management, including the gathering of information to support legal action, and understand the rules of evidence and court proceedings. With this in mind you’ll possess the ability to understand and explain legislation, procedures and requirements to others, and clearly outline the consequences and penalties of non-compliance. There are times when you’ll be faced with complex and emotionally challenging situations, so you should have the interpersonal and communication skills necessary to respond calmly and deescalate any conflict.

When it comes to qualifications you should have a degree or diploma in Environmental Health/Acoustics or equivalent working experience. It’s important that you have confident IT and Microsoft Office skills, and in addition to being able to use handheld technology to record information while working in the city, you should be ready to manage your workload to meet agreed targets and standards.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.   
 
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties  
 
As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.  
 
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.