Despite offering a contract extension last week Conwy council could sever ties with Kingdom as early as next month if terms proposed are not agreed upon.

Conwy County Borough Cocunil (CCBC) are set to meet with the enforcement company this week after cabinet's decision last Tuesday.

The contract extension is until the end of the financial year, but will have a number of conditions including Kingdom not be allowed on private land, staff not targeting certain spots, and being more visible when in public.

A task and finish group has been put in place to explore other options to put in place when the contract comes up.

One of these options could be bringing the contract in-house and passing Kingdom's current role to Conwy County Borough Council (CCBC) parking inspectors.

However, this extension with conditions will only come into play if Kingdom agree with it.

Plan B was discussed at the cabinet meeting last week, although nothing implemented, for if Kingdom say no to the original proposal.

Cabinet leader, Gareth Jones, said that if a plan B was needed they would cut ties with Kingdom when the current contract ended in August and do the job short term anyway they could until a longer term solution was developed.

At the cabinet meeting last week, cllr Jones said: "How Kingdom respond, we will face that when we come to it.

"In terms of plan B, if we need a plan B, then we would look at short term measures we can introduce through this authority more in keeping with the kind of model we are trying to adopt, rather then the kingdom model.

"We would be looking seriously at that and quickly.

"And I believe with our resources we would be able to put in place, short term, some kind of enforcement policy that will enable us to do our duties in maintaining cleanliness and so on."

Llandudno Town councillor, and former mayor, Carol Marubbi has been protesting to get rid of Kingdom for a number of years now and said the extension of the Kingdom contract was "disgusting".

Ms Marubbi said if the cabinet had said they could put alternative options in place if Kingdom turned down the proposal, why if everyone wants them out, did they extend their contract?

She said: "They had the opportunity to get rid of Kingdom, they knew what had happened in Flintshire and Gwynedd - who had terminated their contracts with them and all the complaints.

"Everyone else has kicked them out but they extended it anyway, it's disgraceful."

Cllr Louise Emery, cabinet member for economic development, said the fact other counties were cutting ties with Kingdom was concerning.

A report presented to a Conwy council scrutiny committee said £200,000 had been put aside in the 2018/19 budget for fixed penalty notices.

Ms Marubbi said the council had been receiving at least that amount from FPNs for the past few years since Kingdom were introduced into the county.

But she said she hadn't seen any of that money put back into the county and wanted to know what was being done with it.

Cllr Emery was unable to answer this before the Pioneer went to press.

Even county councillors have been speaking out against Kingdom.

Cllr Aaron Wynn said Kingdom had proved themselves "overly heavy-handed" and thought the contract should be brought back in house.

He added: "Kingdom has also operated across the north of Wales, but many other local authorities have already binned their contracts. Conwy should follow suit.

“Bringing this service in-house will take the profit-making element out of enforcement, and will hopefully restore the public’s trust in Conwy’s own enforcement team. Enforcement is only one way of keeping our streets tidy.”