Council in new bid to curb dog fouling

Council in new bid to curb dog fouling

27 March 2013

DOWN Council wants to take the lead on helping crack the district’s dog fouling problem.

Politicians have been inundated with complaints from ratepayers in towns and villages across the district and say the issue needs to be addressed once and for all.

Earlier this month it was confirmed that a highly successful pilot scheme which reduced the amount of dog dirt on the district’s streets had been ped due to a lack of finance.

But councillors say the scale of the dog dirt problem is such that they need to explore all possible options to deal with it, with a number admitting there will be cost implications for ratepayers if the problem is to be successfully addressed.

Councillor Anne McAleenan said dog fouling is probably the one issue that elected representatives receive the most complaints about. She said while “blitzing” major towns to target dog owners who don’t clean up after their pets has been suggested in the past, she does not believe this is the answer.

“We don’t have enough enforcement staff to tackle this issue effectively and we probably never will,” she declared.

“Council officers need to look at this issue and come up with a range of options to tackle it effectively. The one thing we can say is that this problem is not going to go away,” she added.

Councillor Garth Craig said the local authority has to date been unable to get on top of the dog fouling issue due to the limited resources it has to spend on tackling it.

“We have suggested blitzing our major towns to send out a message that dog fouling won’t be tolerated, but we also don’t want to leave out other areas,” he said.

Councillor Stephen Burns agreed and suggested council staff should concentrate their efforts on dog fouling hot spots, citing the Circular Road in Castlewellan as one such area.

Councillor Billy Walker said pet owners who allow their dogs to use public areas as open air toilets should be “named and shamed in the press,” while Councillor Eamonn O’Neill said tackling the dog fouling issue would be “resource intensive.” He also issued a reminder about the danger dog dirt poses to children’s eyesight and agreed dog fouling is a district-wide issue which has to be addressed.