Why Kingdom officers who joked about 'kicking kids in the head' WON'T be punished

It was revealed on Monday members of staff from environmental firm Kingdom, whose controversial social media messages were revealed last month, cannot be identified so no action will be taken against them.

Released last month, the messages allegedly included talk about following people home, and less than a fortnight later, Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson opted to throw Kingdom out of the city.

Addressing the cabinet member for environment Cllr Anita Leech at the full council meeting at Wallasey Town Hall, Cllr Pat Cleary said: “Sadly, Wirral continues to indulge their behaviour.

“It is clear that the so-called zero-tolerance approach to littering in Wirral is in reality an open invitation for Kingdom to behave as they please with minimal oversight.

“Why does the cabinet member think the Mayor of Liverpool was wrong to dump Kingdom? What steps are you taking to ensure staff who showed such disrespect for our residents will no longer be operating in Wirral?”

Cllr Leech responded by saying the council was “disappointed” at the comments allegedly made by officers in the group.

She explained: “As a matter of course we requested Kingdom to launch an investigation into what had occurred.

“Following their subsequent investigation, Kingdom responded to us to state that the data made available to them by the journalist who brought it to their attention was edited to remove any indication as to who each communication was attributed to.

“It was however identifiable as Team Wirral, and Kingdom’s inquiries indicate a private but unauthorised by senior managers of Kingdom Whatsapp group account set up in 2017 between group who appear to all have been employed by Kingdom in Wirral.”

She said the operation is now under the control of a new management team, and that “Kingdom have reinforced the standard expected of any organisation providing this type of service on behalf of any public body and the community they serve”.

The messages were leaked by a former member of the Kingdom litter squad in November – and also showed the pressure put on officers to hand out a certain number of fines – despite the company and councils who work with them regularly claiming they are supposed to be working largely as deterrents against littering.

One message from the Wirral team allegedly said: “What’s the official line on kicking little sh*t kids in the head? Is it a proper no, or just frowned upon…?!”

To this a fellow team member responded: “On a none professional point just boot them but on a professional point just ignore them and move on haha.”

Another said: “If an offender litters from a window of their car whilst driving, you cannot follow them to their houses as we have had a complaint that 2 male officers followed a lady in the car. This has kicked off big time with councillors – you cannot follow in this manner anymore.”

After the leaked messages were revealed, a spokesman for Kingdom said it “did not recognise that form of communication."

He added: “Having seen some of the language used an investigation will be carried out and if necessary disciplinary procedures may follow.

“Kingdom expects more from its staff.”

At the meeting on Monday, Cllr Leech said: “I will point out that tackling environmental crime such as littering and dog fouling is a priority for this council. We know the negative impact that has on the environment and also the adverse affect it has on residents and their quality of life.

“The feedback we get from residents is that they want to see action taken against the perpetrators of environmental crime, therefore we make no apology about taking action.

“Kingdom have performed well in carrying out the council’s instructions on enforcement which is overseen through robust contractual arrangements and in line with the council policy.

“On occasion that things have gone wrong we have had them investigated.

“We have a strong connection with the management team and our enforcement officers.”