Denbighshire looks set to bring in another external contractor to take on its litter enforcement.

Just months after controversial litter and dog fouling enforcement company Kingdom Services quit Denbighshire county, council are in the final stages of drafting an agreement to be put out to potential contractors.

Denbighshire County Councillor (DCC) head for housing, regulation and the environment, cllr Tony Thomas, said: “It is important to get the regulation in place and we are hoping to definitely have something in place by the summer.

“We are working on contract specifics at the moment, it will be presented to scrutiny next month and if it is approved then the contract will be outsourced.”

But not all councillors are happy with the decision to put the contract to an external party.

Cllr Paul Penlington, Prestatyn North Ward, said litter enforcement should be dealt with internally.

Cllr Penlington said: “I think this service should be run internally but DCC didn’t want to pursue that option.

“They did cite the cost implications of staffing and resources as one of the reasons for that but I thought the money raised from enforcement was far greater than the costs and we’d have had much tighter control over how the service was delivered.

“Kingdom failed to address dog fouling, which remains a serious concern across the county.

“By taking this service in-house we could have controlled where enforcement officers went and what they prioritised.

“We could also have included some element of public education in their work instead of them focusing wholly on enforcement.”

He said it was disgusting to see so many people refusing to pick up their pets fouling and something needed to be done.

Cllr Penlington added: “They clearly have no respect for other people or their own community. There are 240 bins in Prestatyn so there is no excuse for their behaviour.

“I would urge residents to report every incidence of fouling they see, DCC don’t think there is a problem.”

Kingdom received a lot of public backlash from the way they went about their litter enforcement so much so protests were held and social media groups created - including North Wales against Kingdom Security, which has since changed its name to North Wales axed Kingdom Security - speaking out against them.

North Wales axed Kingdom Security administrator, Peter Rourke, said the contract should not be awarded to another external contractor with all private enforcement companies acting the same.

Mr Rourke said he and other members form the group would be ready for the new enforcement company if they started acting similar to Kingdom.