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| Bath time at Randall Avenue, NW2 |
Although the 12 month contract to Kingdom Security was approved by Cabinet the proposal has come in for criticism on several grounds, the most important of which are:
· The terms, pay and conditions of the people who will work on patrols, and their relationships to officers working on enforcement currently working in the Council
· The lack of consideration of an in-house option
· The process by which Kingdom was chosen as a partner for the trial period
· Some of the costings contained in the report
The Council Officers to justify this on the grounds that the roles are different:
The Waste Enforcement roles attract a salary of Pay Scale PO1 (currently £31,368- £33,660); however, these directly employed officers undertake very different work. They use investigatory powers to administer enforcement cases through the formal process right up to and including representing the council in court, which accounts for the higher job evaluation outcome. The work that Kingdom is being asked to do is very much intended to complement and not replace the work of the existing in house team, who do not have the capacity, and are not equipped to carry out pro-active litter enforcement patrols.
The Officers’ Report admits that no job evaluation has been done for the out-sourced workers so it is hard to see how a comparison can be made.
The failure to consider an in-house option is justified on the grounds that this is a 12 month pilot project and has less risk attached than if the operatives were directly employed by the Council. They also rely on the claimed positive experience of Ealing Council with Kingdom.
However, this does not directly answer the general local government principle, which the Council enforces on schools for example, that three bids should be sought for contracts. This has not been done by the Council which instead went straight to Kingdom.
The costings assume the employment of 4 operatives issuing 5 Fixed Penalty Notices each per day for which the Council will pay Kingdon £46 per Notice. Thus, as the FPNs will be for £80 each the sum is not equally shared between the Council and Kingdom. On the basis of 5,200 FPNs annually this gives Kingdom an income of £239,200. Equivalent to £60,000 per operative before wages and other costs - not a bad return.
This is not the end of the matter however as it is assumed, based on the Ealing experience, that only 70% of the fines will be paid. Kingdom will receive £46 for 100% of the Notices but Brent Council £34 for only 70% pf them. This gives a total income of 3,460 Notices (70% of total) x £80=£291,200.
Once Kingdom has been paid its £239,200 this leaves Brent with £52,000.
Scrutiny will need to consider whether this represents Best Value for residents, the issue of what will be done to recover the 30% of unpaid Notices, and whether an in-house solution will be considered after the 12 month pilot period and indeed what Kingdom.s reaction will be if they have successfully delivered the contract.