A SENIOR council director has defended a move to take back control of Trading Standards - saying he feared the service was "at risk" without it.

As your Worcester News revealed last month, Worcestershire County Council is going to bring the service back in-house from April after concerns self-imposed funding cuts would leave it exposed.

From the spring the funding for it will plunge from £360,000 to £450,000, with the current provider Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) having to run it with less cash.

John Hobbs, a director at County Hall responsible for business, environment and the community, said: "I don't intend to go into the weeds of that decision, the council has already decided to bring it back in-house.

"But the bottom line is, with the amount of money we've got we think we can deliver a viable and credible service without a risk of challenge - and at the end of the day the offer from Worcestershire Regulatory Services fell short of that.

"It's no more complicated than that."

WRS has 11 staff employed in Trading Standards but has stated that the figure would fall to around 7.5 full-time equivalents due to the council's falling financial support.

But bosses at County Hall now say by taking it back over, they can still employ 11 full-time equivalent workers because of its greater economies of scale.

The service deals with problems like rogue traders, counterfeit products and dodgy marker sellers but has faced criticism in recent years.

In 2013 it trialled a 'self service' policy in response to funding cuts, where members of the public calling with problems like noisy neighbours were told to try dealing with it themselves first.

Last month a council report said the risks of keeping it with WRS included "reputational" damage or even a Judicial Review for having a service which potentially fails to meet its legal duties.

In Liverpool similar problems have led to a resident there starting a legal challenge by claiming its Trading Standards service is not good enough.

The report also cited concerns about the service struggling to cope if a big disease was to spread in the county while reductions were made in the headcount.

The animal welfare service is also coming back under the council's wing, with WRS focusing on its other array of activities like licensing, pollution and business advice.