Kingdom come…to neighbourhoods

Tackling litter in suburbs and educating people not to drop rubbish will be the focus of a new environmental campaign in Liverpool.

It follows a review of the council’s contract with enforcement firm Kingdom, which has been in place since 2017.

With immediate effect, Kingdom’s 16 strong team will place less emphasis on the city centre, with significantly greater activity in neighbourhoods and with more of a focus on tackling dog fouling as well as litter.

A series of roadshows will also be held in Kensington, Toxteth, Tuebrook, West Derby, Anfield, Everton, Speke and Walton to educate people about the impact of littering, including the financial implications for council taxpayers.

There will also be an emphasis on providing a solution to the ongoing issue of dumping in alleyways.

Mayor Joe Anderson said: “People tell me constantly that they want us to do more to keep the streets clean.

“Enforcement is one way of doing that, but I also want more of a focus on education to show people the consequences of their actions.

“Kingdom have been instructed to introduce a new approach which will be focused around education as well as enforcement, with the aim of changing the attitude of the minority who think it is acceptable to drop litter in neighbourhoods, and catching dog owners who don’t clean up after their animals.

“Together, we need to change the culture and adopt a zero tolerance attitude to littering our streets and needlessly using up the council’s increasingly scarce resources.”

In 2017/18, Liverpool spent £9.5 million on street cleansing, equivalent to £20 per resident. In addition, there were 13,654 reports of flytyipping and dumping, which cost council tax payers a further £1.5 million to clean up.

Councillor James Noakes, newly-appointed Cabinet member for City Services, said: “Much of Kingdom’s work to date has been done in the city centre, and the time is right to now focus on some of the neighbourhoods where people think they can drop litter and leave it to someone else to clear up.

“People are rightly asking what we are doing about tackling litter in their community. We have listened to this feedback and as well as giving out fines where appropriate, we want Kingdom staff to do more informing and engagement with the public. This includes explaining how the money raised from fines is ploughed back in to keeping the streets clean and tackling endemic issues like flytipping and dumping which blight some neighbourhoods.”

In the last 12 months, almost 30,000 fixed penalty notices were issued – 60 percent of them in the city centre – generating £350,000 of vital income for the council which has been reinvested in additional street cleansing, removal of flytipping and cleansing of alleyways.

It has also funded a £20,000 environmental initiative fund, with grants given to community organisations to deliver the likes of litter picking in parks and green spaces, greening and planting projects for grot spots and other enhancements.

Delroy McGee, Regional Operations Director (North) from Kingdom said: “Kingdom is delighted to be working in partnership with Liverpool City Council, helping them to achieve cleaner streets for residents and visitors to the city.”

The work is part of a wider crackdown on environmental crime which has seen a doubling in the number of staff tackling flytipping and cleaning alleyways, with four new teams working seven days a week.

 

Liverpool Waterfront