A council has fallen seriously behind in the health and safety inspections it is supposed to carry out.

In one year, officers from West Oxfordshire District Council were able to carry out essential check-ups on only 38 out of an estimated 2,100 small businesses and shops in the area.

Now, amid warnings of workplace accidents, there are calls for the urgent recruitment of extra officers to do the work.

Paul Wesson, a member of the council's environmental health review panel, said: "We don't even yet know the exact number of premises we are supposed to inspect, and we don't have the staff to visit them. We are not doing our job properly."

While the Health and Safety Executive monitors larger firms, councils are expected to work with small firms to promote health and safety awareness in the workplace.

The Health and Safety Commission obliges them to carry out inspections, take enforcement action and investigate accidents.

In West Oxfordshire, a recent check by the review panel found that some premises had not been inspected once in the last ten years.

Martin Rowland, head of environmental health, said there had been a "worrying decline in enforcement by local authorities".

He estimated that, on a rolling programme, more than 300 premises should be visited each year, but said the council needed to take on two more officers to meet this target.

George Kellow, cabinet member responsible for the environment, said: "It is something that has crept up on us over the past ten years. There are now many more businesses in west Oxfordshire but our staff has not increased in line.

"It is an issue of public safety and something needs doing urgently. Our record in recent years has not been very good."