London borough "very unhappy" after enforcement agency issued fly-tipping fine to five-year-old
The London Borough of Harrow has threatened to terminate its contract with an enforcement firm after it issued a fly-tipping penalty notice to a five-year-old girl.
Enforcement officers employed by APCOA issued the fine to the girl after finding her name on packaging in the street, according to a BBC report.
The child received a letter addressed from the enforcement team, advising her that they were "about to instruct the council's legal team to start court proceedings" against her.
The letter warned that a conviction "carries a maximum penalty of £2,500", the BBC reported.
ACPOA has since abandoned any action against the girl and cancelled the fine.
The firm signed a joint contract in April last year with the London boroughs of Harrow, Ealing and Hounslow to tackle littering and other environmental crime offences.
Speaking in an Overview and Scrutiny Committee last week, the council's leader, Paul Osborn, said the London borough is "very unhappy" with the firm's approach to handing out enforcement notices.
Cllr Osborn said: "When they find an address in a fly tip, that doesn't mean they should issue a fine just for that.
"They should then be sending the person a questionnaire asking them how they think that got there and also to explain what their mechanism for dealing with waste is.
"There should be an evidence-gathering stage, and in the cases that I've seen … that stage hasn't happened.
"We are very unhappy with ACPOA about that."
He added: "We have made it clear to them a number of times and we are at the stage where we are increasingly not having confidence in them."
Alex Dewsnap, the council's managing director, meanwhile said that the firm's staff should be trained to issue fines "for proper reasons [...] and if we had to take it to court, we would be robust through the court process, and that's the contract that they signed up to deliver against".
"Things are being issued right now which aren't robust", he claimed.
An APCOA spokesperson said: "APCOA has proactively engaged with Harrow Council and we are working with them to deliver on-going improvements that will achieve the high-quality service we are committed to."
Adam Carey
