ENVIRONMENTAL health chiefs fear they could be left with a huge bill for the cost of preventing an E.coli food poisoning outbreak.

They believe they will have to take on at least two new members of staff to cope with the extra inspections of food shops.

Now Bolton Council is set to apply to the government for cash to fund the cost of bringing new legislation into force.

The government has set aside £19 million over the next two years.

But the new regulations come into force immediately and the council does not have any cash in its budget for this year to pay for it.

If the government does not come up with the money, councillors were warned at an environment and consumer sub committee meeting that other services could have to suffer.

In future, all high risk premises will have to be inspected every six months instead of every 12 months at present.

In addition, medium risk premises which are currently inspected every 18 months will have to be visited at least once a year.

But Labour Cllr Eric Johnson said: "No matter how much it costs, this is something we have to do. This E.coli and other food poisoning outbreaks are man made and we have a duty to make sure it never happens here." Twenty people have died in the last 12 months in Scotland from the E.coli bacteria.

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