Councillors to debate life after Kingdom enforcement – new services could incur extra cost

The future provision of environmental enforcement in Wrexham is back on the agenda next week, with options such as providing the service in-house or using an external provider on the table.

Members of the council’s homes and environment scrutiny committee will be asked on Wednesday for their views on the proposed options for the delivery of an environmental enforcement service across Wrexham County Borough.

It comes as Wrexham Council look for a way forward to deal with littering and dog fouling in the area.

In a report due before the scrutiny committee next week it is stated that “environmental crimes such as littering and dog control remain a high concern of borough residents, therefore the council needs to consider the future delivery of this service.”

As readers of Wrexham.com will be aware Wrexham Council’s controversial contract with environmental enforcement company, Kingdom Services Ltd, was terminated at the end of 2018.

The company had issued FPNs (fixed penalty notices) for dog fouling and littering on behalf of the council since April 2016.

However the local authority came under increasing pressure to end its contract with the firm amid criticism of the ‘zero tolerance’ approach used to issue fines.

Previously environmental enforcement services had been delivered ‘in-house’ by Wrexham Council, a method which saw just seven FPNs issued for dog fouling in 2015/16.

Next Wednesday members of the homes and environment scrutiny committee will be asked to consider the four potential options for the delivery of the future environmental enforcement service for Wrexham Council – along with timescales on how long such a model would take to be set-up.

Such options include maintain the current operating model, which would see members of the existing enforcement service deployed when complaints are made over littering and dog fouling.

However it is noted that whilst this option would come at nil cost to the council, it would in effect leave the “council with minimal enforcement of environmental crimes” – with the main priority for officers being the civil enforcement of parking offences.

A second option would be to seek an external contractor again, something which the report says would take “six months to go through the tendering process and subsequently set up an appropriate contract with a suitable enforcement contractor.”

The report continues onto say that depending on the type of contract there may be costs to the council.

Another option would be to work with other North Wales councils to set up a regional delivery service.

In July 2018 it was confirmed that discussions with other authorities across North Wales over the creation of a regional enforcement service have taken place.

However next week’s report states that although there was “generally wide scale agreement”, the desire has “significantly reduced and many councils have either determined to utilise internal teams or are testing the external market for options and opportunities.”

A final option put forward is that the council look look at providing an in-house enforcement service, something which could take between six to nine months to set-up subject to securing suitable funding.

The report notes that while the council does not have a dedicated resource in house to for environmental crime enforcement, its internal team “has the capability to complete this work, but priority remains on civil parking enforcement’.

It adds: “An in-house service can be flexible and responsive to demands, but would dilute the existing enforcement priority and become a pressure on internal budget and services standards and provisions.

“The current internal team would need to be expanded with additional officers and administration support.”

The report will be considered by members of the homes and environment scrutiny committee at 2pm on Wednesday 13th February. The meeting is due to be held in the main Guildhall chamber so we can assume it will also be webcast on the Wrexham Council website.