ENFORCEMENT officers contracted by Thurrock Council to police the borough's streets and issue fines for littering, dog fouling and fly tipping look set to earn the private firm that employs them a bigger share of the fine.

The council is in the final year of a four year deal with controversial enforcement company Kingdom Security.

Several councils across the country have ditched their relationship with Kingdom because of its alleged underhand enforcement practices. Kingdom earns its money based on the number of tickets its officers hand out.

Some of those practices including hiding then jumping out to fine people have been witnessed in Thurrock, as reported in a comment piece by Thurrock Nub News editor Neil Speight last year.

And a couple of weeks ago Thurrock Nub News highlighted the case of an elderly, non-English speaking Aveley resident who was ambushed by enforcement officers and fined, even though he was unaware of the rules.

In the three years of the contract running up to November last year Kingdom picked up £458,750 of the £997,545 raised in fixed penalty notice fines. In total 10,877 notices were issued.

In a report to the council's cleaner, greener and safer overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday (4 February) the council sets out the case for entering into a new contract with a private company, rather than bringing the service back in house.

The report says that it is likely that whoever they broker a deal with, the company will want a larger slice of the fines cake - but it is still believed using outside contractors will be the best financial option for the council which has picked up £538,794 in the lifetime of the existing contract to November last year.

That has covered the cost of its own in-house teams, making the enforcement policy 'cost neutral'.

In his report to the committee the strategic lead for environmental enforcement, Phil Carver, details how the system currently works.

He says: "In December 2016 the Council entered into a pilot scheme to determine the viability of using contracted Environmental Enforcement Services.

"This pilot was a proven success, and in December 2017 the council entered into a four year contract with the current supplier for the provision of environmental enforcement services on a cost neutral model.

"The council has a small internal team of environmental enforcement officers who respond to a large number of service requests from the public and councillor enquiries each year for suspected environmental crime and some aspects of anti-social behaviour. The purpose of that that team is to manage large complex environmental crime issues and respond to the volume of service requests.

"The objective of the contracted-out environmental enforcement services is to support and deliver a proactive visible uniform service offering littering and dog fouling enforcement on a cost neutral basis.

"Feedback from the initial pilot was taken into account and amendments to the range of services, level of fines levied and the publication of successful prosecutions was implemented and supported upon the commencement of the contract.

"The environmental enforcement services contract expires in December 2021."

Mr Carver goes on to say: "The council has a small internal environmental enforcement team consisting of four day shift officers that are responsible for responding and taking appropriate action for the 4,000 service requests, 50 complaints and 450 plus councillor enquiries received on average each year.

"The council has recently expanded and introduced a twilight enforcement team comprising of three environmental enforcement officers on a two year fixed term contract.

"The objective of the twilight team is to focus on environmental offences and some aspects of anti-social behaviour occurring during the night time economy

"The size of the day team restricts activity to being a purely reactive service, prioritising larger complex investigative casework. In order to deliver a highly effective service to complement the existing in house service there is a need for a proactive enforcement solution resolving simple high volume cases."

Mr Carver believes that using a private firm is the best solution to that and he is recommending the committee agree to going out and attempting to secure a new contract with a private sector firm for next year.

You can read his full report here.

The council also says it intends to implement a 'name and shame' policy highlighting offenders who do not pay up. Currently just 64 per cent of fines are paid and the council, through highlighting the issue and more prosecutions, wants to get that number up over three-quarters.

Mr Carver's report calls on the committee to back that plan, saying: "In order to prevent and dissuade potential offenders from committing environmental crime, the council intends to publicise the outcome of successful prosecutions through the council's communication channels and in the local press.

"By releasing the details of offenders and the crimes that they have committed the council will demonstrate its commitment to taking action against offenders and reassure the local community that action is being taken against those who choose to spoil the environment.

"In cases where the identity is unknown or where false details are given, information including pictures will be published in order to appeal for information pertaining to the identity of the offender."