Date set for Kingdom to leave

Private enforcement officers will leave Peterborough’s streets next year. Officers from Kingdom Services Group have been patrolling parts of the city since the summer of 2017 after signing a deal with the council, allowing it to hand out £80 fines for offences such as littering, spitting and Bridge Street cycling. However, there were claims Kingdom was targeting the most minor offenders, while in April the firm was criticised after one of its officers allegedly threatened to fine children protesting about climate change in the city centre as they were supposedly making too much noise. A Kingdom spokesman said there had been no intention to carry out the threat. Now, council leader Cllr John Holdich has revealed the firm will be replaced by the authority’s own enforcement officers from January 31.

The council’s Prevention and Enforcement Service will take over responsibilities, boosted by a new mobile enforcement unit and neighbourhood officers. Kingdom’s departure is expected to help the council make an extra £380,000 a year as all fines will now be kept in-house, rather than the company keeping £45. That profit also includes a number of other proposals being introduced, including a shared CCTV service with Fenland District Council and the removal of the anti-social behaviour team.

Labour group leader Cllr Shaz Nawaz said: “I am pleased the Kingdom contact is being brought in-house, especially following the debacle last year of trying to issue fines to children in the city centre.”

Cyclists in Bridge Street