City of Wolverhampton Council has appointed a security company to hand out £75 fines to litter droppers. The uniformed enforcers spent a week training on their patch and on Monday, August 17 began work full time. They will patrol high footfall areas such as the city centre and district centres of Wednesfield, Bilston and Tettenhall. They will also target known hotspot areas elsewhere in the city.
Anyone dropping litter or letting their dogs foul without disposing of it properly will be issued with an immediate, on the spot fine of £75. The council says that it’s part of its ‘Cleaner Greener Better’ campaign which aims to boost pride in the city.
The partnership with Kingdom, an ACS Pacesetters firm, will not cost taxpayers anything. The company will keep a share of the income from the fines and the remainder will go back into tackling environmental issues in the city.
Councillor Steve Evans, cabinet member for city environment, hailed what he called a zero tolerance approach to litter and dog fouling. He said: “Residents, businesses and the council are united in wanting to see action against the minority of antisocial people who litter our streets.
“The message will soon get out there that we mean business by having this full time, highly visible team of enforcement officers out there giving out £75 fines for littering and dog fouling.
“When we announced we were doing this, the reaction we got from the public was very positive indeed. People quite clearly want to see action being taken against the litter critters. Unfortunately, due to Government cuts, we haven’t had the resources to carry out much of our own enforcement in recent years, but this innovative partnership with Kingdom will see that situation change at no cost to the taxpayer.”
Michael Fisher, Kingdom divisional director, said: “Kingdom Environmental Protection Division is delighted to be working in partnership with City of Wolverhampton Council with the common aim of reducing street litter within the city and make the streets both cleaner and safer for all members of the community.
“Kingdom has been delivering a wide range of environmental investigations and enforcement services on a national basis since 2009 and have consequently contributed to a reduction in street litter and the associated cost of street cleaning as a result of our efforts.
“Our aim is to patrol in an intelligence led manner focusing our controls on identified litter hotspots operating a robust but always proportionate methodology to tackle the problem, utilising a wide range of technical support including body worn cameras.”
Kingdom are featured in the August 2015 print issue of Professional Security for their environmental protection officers in Wirral.
Kingdom started providing environmental protection services on behalf of Wirral Council on July 1, and by the end of July patrollers had issued 1,176 fixed penalty notices. This was ten times the number issued in the previous five years combined, as only 90 fines were handed out by the council between 2010 and 2015.
Bernie Mooney, cabinet member for environment and sustainability, said: “I think we’ve shown in the first month of having Kingdom enforcing the legislation on our behalf that we mean business when it comes to delivering the council leader’s pledge to tackle littering, as well as fly-tipping and dog fouling.
“We are absolutely committed to cleaner streets, parks and open spaces and creating a more pleasant environment for all Wirral residents as they go about their day-to-day lives and we are heartened by the level of public support we have had for this approach.”
Kingdom similarly do work with other councils from Barnsley to Havant in Hampshire and Tunbridge Wells and other authorities in Kent.
