South Holland District Council needs to ‘follow the lead’ of Boston Borough when it comes to environmental crime, says a report.
Members of the Performance Monitoring Panel committee are discussing the contract between the three district councils and enforcement company Kingdom.
The firm is responsible for issuing Fixed Penalty Notices for a number of problems, from dog fouling to fly tipping and abandoned vehicles.
Kingdom is employed by all three members of the South East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership – but has worked with Boston Borough for the longest period.
The company invoices the partnership for 90 per cent of the money raised by way of penalty notices.
South Holland District Council receives 487.5 hours, East Lindsey 650 and Boston Borough a total of 487.5.
“Officers from waste services also indicated that due to Boston’s prior contact with Kingdom, the waste and enforcement teams are better at engaging with each other,” says a Task Group review.
“It was indicated that this is also down to the way their teams are set up. SHDC and ELDC need to clarify responsibilities and look to learn from Boston colleagues.”
Initial issues with recruitment and retention have improved, the report says.
“It was clear to the Task Group that BBC is leading the way, ELDC and SHDC could learn from their approach and replicate the way things are done there, both in terms of the way officers interact internally, and also the way Kingdom have built relationships with the community and the police.
“Waste officers also agreed that better education for the public would assist in tackling enviro crime. Kingdom provides both capacity and expertise.
“Although there is a need to be aware of the risk that not enough income is generated to meet the threshold for sustainability of the contract.”
Kingdom’s feedback says they have been asked to deal with everything they see, which is not always reflected in reports as it only sees the outcome in relation to FPNs issued and ‘not every interaction they have with the public.’
“Sometimes officers are sent to certain areas in pairs as part of their current risk assessment, due to a lack of understanding and support from the local police.”
But the company is confident the balance between fly tipping and littering is right. It takes four hours to deal with a fly tip, compared to just five minutes for littering.
“Work is being undertaken to harmonise some processes, each council has different priorities and can even provide differing legal advice.”
Things to be considered for the remainder of he contract, for any new or renewed contract, includes collaboration with community groups and town and parish councils, increased use of CCTV and aligning systems across the partnership.
