Council suspends litter police after Panorama expose
Litter wardens in Maidstone have again been suspended from patrol after it was revealed they were paid substantial bonuses based on the amount of tickets issued.
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) insists it was not aware of the extent of the ‘litter competency allowance’ Kingdom Security pays its staff.
Inside the Litter Police, which aired on BBC One on Monday, saw an undercover Panorama reporter work alongside enforcement officers in Bexley.
During filming one employee told the reporter he once received a bonus of £987 while working in Ashford.
He said after issuing four fines in a day officers earn £5 for further tickets, increasing to £6 after seven fines are handed out.
The service was previously suspended in October after the KM exclusively revealed how one woman was fined £80 for feeding the ducks.
At that time, MBC denied Kingdom’s employees were paid any kind of commission.
A council spokesman this week said it had no knowledge of the ticket-based pay system, but stressed the bonus is not an incentive to issue tickets and is also determined by factors such as attendance and behaviour. Officers were held off street patrol for 24 hours while the authority investigated the latest allegations.
Kingdom splits the proceeds of each £80 fine 50/50 with the authority employing them.
At one point during the filming, one enforcement officer admitted regularly pretending to phone the police in order to encourage the public to hand over personal details.
Another said he tricked people into stepping away from dropped litter to prove they intended to leave rubbish behind.
During a training session a manager said the company is only interested in working with councils who want to adopt a hard line approach, revealing Kingdom – which works for 28 councils – had “just got rid of two councils because they are not profitable, they just won’t let us enforce in the way that we need to. They want it to be all to be pink and fluffy and they want to give people warnings and cautions”.
The number of fines issued nationally has risen from 727 10 years ago to more than 140,000 last year.
Jennifer Shepherd, head of environment and public realm, said officers were removed on Tuesday following the report, adding: “We are currently speaking with Kingdom to review how we can continue to provide the best service to our residents and when officers will be reinstated.”
At the time of going to press Kingdom Security had not replied to the KM’s request for a comment.