Agenda item

To consider a report by the Built Environment and Public Protection Manager (copy attached) the purpose of which is to consult with members on the draft specification for the contract for providing environmental crime enforcement contract.  The report also outlines how the Council intends to deliver and manage the new environmental enforcement contract.

10.05am – 10.50am

The Lead Member for Housing, Regulation and the Environment introduced the Built Environment and Public Protection Manager’s report (previously circulated) the purpose of which was to consult on the draft specification of the contract for the provision of environmental crime enforcement services for the county.  Members were briefed by the Lead Member on the background and the reasons why the Council was seeking a new provider to deliver environmental crime services, following Kingdom Security Limited’s decision to withdraw from their contract for providing the service to the Council in August 2018.  Prior to Kingdom’s decision to withdraw from its contract with the Council it had become apparent that some residents were not happy with the company’s approach to environmental crime enforcement.  Following Kingdom’s departure elected members had made it clear that the focus of any future contract should be on enforcement activities relating to dog fouling, with a particular emphasis on educating offenders and residents on the dangers posed by dogs fouling and on the importance of abiding with Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO) relating to the control of dogs.  Whilst the draft contract specification presented to the Committee for consideration focussed on dog-related crime it did also make provision for the appointed contractor to enforce against other environmental crimes, such as littering, begging etc.  The Lead Member stressed that environmental crime enforcement services had never been delivered by the Council in-house, therefore the cost of establishing and in-house service, estimated to be between £200K and £250K, would be prohibitive.  He also advised that enquiries had been made with respect of the potential of collaborating regionally to deliver environmental crime enforcement services, however this would not be viable in the near future, although collaboration with Conwy County Borough Council in relation to procuring environmental crime enforcement services may be an option in the not too distant future.  Denbighshire’s draft contract specification had been shared with Conwy CBC with a view to exploring the viability of tendering for services jointly in the future.

Members were advised by the Head of Planning and Public Protection that proposed new approach for dealing with environmental crime was made up of three separate elements:

·         communication with the public to raise awareness and instil a sense of personal responsibility, with a view to get community buy-in to the aims and objectives of the anti-fouling strategy and this type of anti-social behaviour (ASB)

·         clean and tidy streets, the work of the Streetscene team and their proactive approach in notifying the Public Protection Service of problem areas with a view to the Service targeting the area with posters and leaflets

·         enforcement action (including delivering educational sessions in schools and to community groups etc.)

The Built Environment and Public Protection Manager advised that Kingdom had delivered environmental crime enforcement services for Denbighshire for approximately 5 years.  During that time the company’s contract with the Council had been effectively managed and monitored by the Public Protection Officer:  Community Safety.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member, Head of Planning and Public Protection, and Built Environment and Public Protection Manager advised that:

·         the decision to outsource the service and procure services from an external provider had already been taken by Cabinet at its meeting in September 2018, the purpose of the report to the Committee was to consult with members on the contract specification;

·         the Council’s Education Service was of the view that there was a gap in this type of education within the county’s schools and that pupils would benefit from learning about environmental crime and understating there, and their family’s responsibilities in this area;

·         whilst Kingdom Security Limited were operating in Denbighshire the county rated highly on the street cleanliness index;

·         whichever company was eventually successful in being awarded the contract, they would be managed and monitored by the Public Protection Officer:  Community Safety in the same way as he had managed Kingdom Security Ltd;

·         costings etc. for a number of potential options for delivering the service had been provided in the report presented to Cabinet in September 2018.  Members requested that a copy of this report be circulated to them;   

·         due to the very nature of the service delivering it would never be easy, neither would it be a popular service to deliver.  If the Council decided to deliver this service itself, its reputation with the public would suffer.  However, there were private companies that did deliver these types of services.  Some ‘soft marketing’ testing had already been done which had resulted in four or five companies showing an interest in tendering to deliver the service in due course;

·         the draft contract specification did stipulate that generally officers delivering the service would wear “a distinctive non-black hi-visibility uniform of a description that present a clear and friendly appearance to all sections of society”;

·         once the contract was let officers and representatives from the successful company would visit all Member Area Groups (MAGs) with a view to introducing themselves and interacting with local members in relation to their wards;

·         as part of the income generation aspect of the draft contract specification the Council had considered the proposed delivery model’s fixed costs and potential penalty sharing. With a view to securing a deliverable service one potential option would be for the service provider to keep 95% of the Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) with the remaining 5% being paid to the Council.  These were only indicative figures at present;

·         residents may also in future be able to assist the Council to target dog fouling hotspots in the county by using a mobile phone app that would enable them to take a photograph of an incident and send it to the Council immediately with location details.  Receipt of this type of ‘live’ information would enable the Council to deploy appropriate resources to those areas far quicker than was currently possible;

·         that the Council could take action with regards to dog owners who did not comply with dog control orders in designated PSPO areas.  In other areas social media etc. could be used as a mode of communicating with residents with regards to their duties and responsibilities as dog owners;

·         when tendering for the contract the prospective providers would be expected to draw-up a robust and viable business plan that would ensure that they could deliver the service in line with the contract specification.  How they met their overheads and liabilities and generated a profit would need to form part of their business plan;

·         to withdraw from delivering the contract at a date in the future the provider would be required to give the Council a month’s notice to terminate its contract; and

·         they were confident that a number of interested companies would bid for the contract once it was advertised.  However, if no interested bidder came forward the contract specification would be reviewed

Members suggested that interaction with pupils in the county’s schools could also include arranging poster competitions as a method of consolidating their learning and communicating it to the wider community.  It was also important to educate children, particularly secondary school pupils, on how to responsibly dispose of all types of litter, including fast-food packaging.  The Committee also stressed that close working and liaison between environmental crime enforcement officers and local elected members was key in order to secure an effective environmental crime enforcement service.

At the conclusion of the discussion, having considered the report and its contents along with the answers given to the questions raised, the Committee by a majority of 7 votes to 3:

RESOLVED: - subject to the above observations –

(i)           to support the draft contract specification set out in Appendices A and B to the report to enable officers to proceed to the tender stage of procuring an external provider to deliver enforcement of environmental crime services in the County; and

(ii)          that regular reports are provided to each Member Area Group (MAG) on Environmental Crime Enforcement activities in their area.