The Environmental Enforcement Manager introduced the report as set out in the agenda papers.

The Chair invited Members to make comments and ask questions, and these included:

·         Thanked the Task and Finish Group for their work and said there was a lot of work to do to combat the large amount of litter and dog fowling in the borough and the Council needed to educate residents and encourage them to take their litter and dog waste home if there were no bins available;

·         officers needed to ensure that with regard to the issuing of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) there would be sufficient boots on the ground to adequately cover resource for the borough and not overly target areas where the contractor would just be able to show a good financial return which had happened previously;

·         would the contractors be asked to include ‘social value’ within the contract?;

·         the Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) maps needed to be made clearer;

·         did wardens offer any moral advice on issuing a FPN for littering?;

·         did not support the use of heat maps as whilst they proved the contractor had been in the area it did not prove they had undertaken any work;

·         how would the committee monitor the contract, would it be officer delegation or would the committee receive a progress report?;

·         the Council’s Environmental Enforcement Policy was due for review in December 2026 so needed to be included on the Forward Decisions Plan; and

·         could the Council impose higher fixed charge penalties for flytipping?

In response, the Environmental Enforcement Manager said that the specification for the service would be completely different from the previous contract with fixed operators and a mobile support unit which could also be deployed to rural areas.  Social values would be a key criteria of any Council contract moving forward. The Head of Environment & Leisure added that the Task and Finish Group had made it clear that whilst a contractor was needed to focus on the high footfall areas, as that generated the income to pay for the service, the specification would require a fixed number of hours outside of the high footfall areas.

The Head of Environment & Leisure explained that the contractor would be asked to focus on the core activities and then once officers were ‘comfortable’ with that operation, additional activities such as PSPOs could be added. 

The Environmental Enforcement Manager said that whilst she could not comment on the specifics of the contract, officers were having discussions around education and engagement with all ages and whether there was anything other local authorities provided in that regard that could be included in the specification.  The Environment Services Manager referred to the Council’s Environmental Enforcement Policy that included information about issuing FPN’s to young people, and that any enforcement carried out needed to be in-line with that policy.

The Head of Environment & Leisure advised that it had been made clear as part of the pre-engagement, the level of detail the Council expected to be reported back for monitoring purposes.   He understood that the heat maps were only representative of the locations they had been to, but officers could also have a heat map of where they had been and where action had been taken, which was also the same for the parking service.

The Environment Services Manager reported the Council had fixed penalty notices amounts which Members had set under the fees and charges, and it was two tier for fly-tipping, with the upper tier set at the maximum amount.  If it was considered the fixed penalty notice was not appropriate, offenders could be taken to court.  The Environment Services Manager further reported that via the Kent Resource Partnership, officers had sought to engage the Magistrates Association about the implications of fly-tipping, and requested they reviewed the penalties and sentencing guidance that they currently used.  Also, he was aware that the government were looking at additional tools to assist local council’s with more severe penalties for fly-tipping.

Councillor Jayes proposed the recommendation, which was seconded by the Councillor Nundy. 

Resolved:

(1)      That the update report be noted, and that officers finalise the specification and proceed to tender, in consultation with the Member Task and Finish Group.