Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Private Uniformed Officers to Police Litterbugs and Fly-Tippers in Haringey
People who litter in Haringey are to face tougher enforcement action as part of a new trial announced by the Council last week.
During a nine month trial starting on 21st of this month a new team of uniformed officers will patrol the streets handing out fines ranging from £80 to £400 to anyone aged 18 or over who is seen dropping or dumping rubbish or allowing their dogs to foul the streets.
The new regime will include handing out fines to anyone who drops chewing gum or cigarette butts. The officers will wear body cameras with footage used as evidence if required. People under the age of 18 will have their names and address taken for a letter to be issued to their parents.
The uniformed officers will be employed by Kingdom Security. The contract with the company is expected to cost £120,000 per year with the costs covered by money received from penalties issued.
Last year 586 fixed-penalty notices were issued for littering in Haringey. If the same number were to be fined in the coming year, this would generate an income of between £46,000 and almost a £¼M. Of course if detection rates increase significantly, a much higher sum could be expected.
Whilst more attention to littering will be welcome, there are reasons to give a cautious welcome to the new scheme. Kingdom Security claim in their promotional material that the environmental division is "led by experienced experts with police and military backgrounds" and recent press coverage suggests that their powers may sometimes be exercised with too little restraint.
Last year Maidstone Council suspended the operations of Kingdom's entire litter operation after a woman was fined for feeding the ducks. The Kent Messenger reported that the "£80 fixed penalty notice was issued to a woman feeding the ducks in Tovil – because the warden insisted no birds were present at the time."
In another incident a Twitter storm was unleashed when a photographer was arrested by Kingdom Security guards for taking pictures of a Golden Wonder crisps factory. Whilst the exchange is not particularly edifying from either side, the law was on the side of the photographer and the viewpoint of the Kingdom security guard rather indefensible:
The Manifesto Club (which describes itself as campaigning against the hyperregulation of everyday life) conducted a short investigation into Kingdom Security and found that the number of fines issued by the company has increased steeply. In 2011-12, the company issued 18,690 penalty notices on behalf of 13 councils. By 2014-15, that had climbed to 42,529 fines for 16 councils.
The Manifesto Club say that "In most cases, Kingdom Security receives a portion of each fine issued, between £40 and £75 of a £75 fine (on average, the company retains £45). In some cases, councils pay Kingdom Security on an hourly or annual contract basis, but this arrangement comes with ‘projected income’ figures: that is, the arrangement is based on a certain number of fines being issued."
The precise details of the Haringey contract have not been released, but there are some worrying local precedents. In 2014-15 Enfield Council received £221,200 after 6,255 penalty notices were issued by Kingdom – but the company was paid £279,090.
Apparently the vast majority of fines are issued for cigarette butts. However, fines are also being issued by Kingdom Security officers for: spitting, handing out leaflets without a licence and smoking in Taxi or work vehicles.
Whilst Haringey's focus on litter is to be welcomed, it is also to be hoped that they have drawn up a contract designed both to curb any excesses and to ensure value for money.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Victor Mayfield on
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These guys need to come to Turnpike Lane every day and night and issue £400 fines to anyone dumping crap out on the street outside collection times. People need to be fined until they stop running the area down. Haringey would make a fortune and could start to recover some of the £3 million per year cost of cleaning up after the many idiots who dump rubbish in the streets. It is a great idea. If people are dumb enough to think it is ok to spit and dump bags of garbage in the street they need to learn the hard way that it is not ok. This company need video evidence to prove there has been an offence. They won't need to falsify any instances of dumping on turnpike Lane. It happens there every 10 minutes. Kingdom are very welcome. Please let them stay. If haringe don't recover the £120,000 per year cost of the kingdom contract then increase the fine to £600.
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There are some posts on here saying the rubbish problem is Veolia purple bags, it is people driving through the area, it is people from outside. The main problem is none of the above. The main problem is the overwhelming number of residents and business in the local area who think it is OK to dump vast amounts of crap out into the streets every single day, sometimes multiple times each day. There are signs up saying please don't do it. These are ignored. There are collection times on certain roads outside which it is illegal to dump. These are ignored.
The biggest scandal here is not the behaviour of Kingdom enforcement officers in other boroughs. No. The biggest scandal and elephant in the room that no one seems willing to address is the huge number of ignorant, selfish, gormless residents and businesses intent on running the area down. They are literally defecating on their own doorsteps with supermarket carrier bags full of used nappies and rotten meat. There is a need for a sustained programme of behaviour change promotion that involves heavy, zero tolerance enforcement.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Well said. It's time the residents ( and shopkeepers ) took responsibility for their actions.
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Did you say anything to her?
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Well I hope they target the fly tippers because I've read about people being fined for pouring coffee down a drain or a small piece of orange peel meanwhile we're walking past massive amounts of dumped sh1t in the streets - I'm sceptical to say the least!
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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It's in the BBC Panorama film, Sarah. No need to rely on reading about it.
Just watch and see what those private cops got up to in Bexley. Including threatening and pretending to call the real police.
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These contractors need video evidence to prove someone committed an offence. Pouring coffee into a drain or accidentally dropping orange peel is not an offence hence both cases were thrown out.
I have no problem with these enforcement officers walking up and down Turnpike Lane fining people for dumping bags of garbage, used drums of cooking oil, wooden pallets, sofas, fridges, washing machines, mattresses, toilet bowls, dead animals, rotten vegetables and fast food wrapping all over the street. No problem at all. If the enforcement officers threaten to call the police on these individuals, no problem whatsoever. I do not care in the slightest.
Rubbish is dumped on Turnpike Lane every hour of the day, every day of the week. Enforcement officers will not need to set up situations where people dump rubbish. It happens so frequently they will not be able to cope with the sheer volume of cases.
The bigger problem here is not a few enforcement officers threatening people with exaggerated charges of littering, it is the fact that £3 million of Haringey Borough funds are being spent on cleaning up after ignorant residents and businesses who have no respect for their city. This is a complete waste of money that could be better spent on other essential services. This issue of dumping needs to be dealt with through any means necessary, including threatening morons who perpetrate the dumping of rubbish.
The problem of dumping is not limited to residents and businesses. Local private landlords and property agencies have a major hand in exacerbating the scattering of rubbish, building waste and awful looking furniture all over the neighbourhood. They provide no facility for tenants to clear unwanted furniture left by previous tenants. They simply dump building waste out into the street. Some have no regard for other laws either. I've seen slum landlords who run a local property agency on Turnpike Lane drive the wrong way up a one-way system because they can't be bothered to drive around the block.
These landlords and agencies act with total impunity and are profiting from running the area down. These are the private companies I think we should be more concerned about. Not Kingdom.
In some cases Haringey Council are the biggest client of these landlords and property agencies because of the erosion of social housing stock. Haringey council has a responsibility to clamp down on these landlords and property agencies and investigate their activities. They need more scrutiny. They are destroying the local area.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Hear hear.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Here's a mini-rant. I reported a pile of dumped rubbish this week, looked like leftover moving-out stuff. There was a bank statement on top, so i brought it home for safe keeping for the addressee. I added that address to the report, with the suggestion that the junk must have come from that HMO address.
Is it likely that this would have been followed through? Do junk picker-uppers check for possible ID? All that the My Account report says, is Status Closed.
These junk piles are always about HMO changes of tenant, I report them all the bloody time, are there any moves to get the landlords to understand that they can get mattresses + furniture etc collected FOR FREE if they just make a phone call? And then to confiscate their houses if they keep offending?
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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You mean.... like this: https://youtu.be/THBAx14unpM
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I hope, Pam that you've copied your post to Cllr Peray Ahmet the "cabinet" councillor for envionmental issues.
I entirely agree that when someone has made a point of supplying information which would help trace the dumpers - Plainly we have do that when possible - it's only polite if they let us know whether they've seen our additional information and whether it was helpful.
At that point, I'm happy to let Haringey's staff make an informed judgement about what action to take. I don't thnk the fines route is always best. Sometimes advice or warning is more appropriate. Sometimes talking to someone who has technically "dumped" waste is a actually a useful way of learning how to improve our systems of waste collection. I'd give examples. But I'm sure you can easily imagine some.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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I'm happy to report I saw two people putting their rubbish in the bin on West Green Road today. There were some bags of rubbish by the bin but no loose litter on the ground apart from the inevitable cigarette butts.
It's too soon to call it progress, but I'll keep an eye on the situation...
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