The contract company Kingdom has started providing Environmental Protection services in Rotherham on behalf of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
The contractor’s officers have started patrolling known hotspots around the borough, and will issue fixed penalty notices to anyone caught committing an environmental crime such as dropping litter (which includes cigarette ends and chewing gum) and not cleaning up their pet’s dog mess.
Rotherham puts its environmental crime bill at £1.7m. Kingdom, an ACS Pacesetters company, has been tasked with issuing 5000 fines over the next 12 months to anyone caught dropping litter, not cleaning up after their dog or breaking other such environmental laws. This follows their work in neighbouring Doncaster, where Kingdom has been providing Environmental Protection Services since January 2016, and in the first year there issued over 8000 fixed penalty notices.
Comment
Rotherham Council’s Assistant Director for Community Safety and Street Scene Karen Hanson said: “We want to make the borough a nicer place for people who work, live in and visit Rotherham. By putting extra officers on the beat, we can specifically target dog owners who refuse to clean up after their dogs’ foul or use a bin for their litter. This approach demonstrates the Council’s commitment to protect the health and environment of residents and visitors, and to tackle environmental crime as part of our ‘Time for Action’ initiative to strengthen Council enforcement.
“Whilst the council has had the ability to fine people in the past, our extra officers mean that there is a greater chance of culprits being caught and fined. We know it can be frustrating when environmental crime keeps re-occurring, but we will be doing our best to catch the people who keep spoiling the streets of Rotherham.”
