South Holland District Council have got it wrong Again! Clean up your act!
Kingdom LA Support Ltd are a facilities management company currently employed by South Holland District Council as environmental support services. Their primary task is to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) against individuals dropping litter, residents putting out waste bags early and investigating fly tipping within the South Holland District.
Although the Fixed Penalty Notice fines go direct into to the council coffers, Kingdom’s income is derived from the number of FPN issued, and consequently they are very driven to go for easy targets and not tackling the more difficult targets/problem areas within the district.
I wish to remain anonymous, however, I will give you the details of my experience with SHDC and Kingdom LA.
On August 10 I was approached by Officer Martins, a Kingdom LA authorised officer of South Holland Council, on New Road in Spalding at 9.38am, who had reason to believe I had committed an offence of dropping a cigarette butt down a drain and walked away.
Yes, I fully admit, what I had done was wrong and duly accepted the FPN, the fine being £150 to be paid within 14 days as stated on the FPN. I elected to pay the FPN immediately and went to South Holland Council offices to pay.
I actually paid the fine within an hour of it being issued. As I paid within ten days the fine was reduced to £100.
Although this hurt my pocket, I was an easy target by the enforcement officer.
I said to the officer: “Next time I will put it in the bin close by” his response was “yes that bin has caught fire on numerous occasions.”
To add injury to insult I received a letter dated November 28, signed by the FPN Administrator, Kingdom LA Support Ltd, working on behalf of South Holland District Council, giving me a first reminder to pay £150 with seven days.
I’ve already paid the fine.
I’m going to ignore their letter and wait to see what happens. Let’s see if I end up in Magistrates’ Court. I might even get a letter of apology – highly unlikely!
Over the summer the council have highlighted the contract they have signed with Kingdom LA Support Ltd to clean up our town on social media and in local newspaper photos and articles.
I would suggest the council needs to clean up its act first, before taking on contractors who are using council office headed paper, postage cost and the list goes on of a contractor incapable of the actually issuing FPN and then not have the ability to administer the collection of fines correctly.
Yet again the council taking something on to reduce their operating cost by sub-contracting out to a substandard outfit incapable of tackling or achieving the council’s objective to tidy up the town and outlying areas where fly tipping is prevalent.
I just wonder what Kingdom LA statistics look like.
Easy targets, general public on the streets in town (cigarette butts, cans/food wrapping), household waste, fly tipping, other environmental issues.
I would bet the easy targets percentages are higher (as they are paid for each FPN issued).
How many more innocent people have been caught out by this wholly inadequate substandard service provider? What were the council thinking of?
The Wombles are doing a better job and they are a passionate voluntary group.
I have attached redacted copies of the FPN, council office receipt for payment and the reminder letter from Kingdom LA Ltd to substantiate my dilemma.
I wish to remain anonymous as I’m not proud of the offence I committed, but if you could highlight my story to make the easy targets to get their fines paid as early as possible, within ten days, to receive the rebate offered by the SHDC.
Name and address supplied
