Increase in complaints about dog fouling in Scarborough Borough
Work is underway to try and tackle the amount of dog mess that is being left by a minority of people in Scarborough Borough.
There has been an increase in complaints about the amount of dog fouling across the Borough of Scarborough.
That is according to Tony Randerson, who is the Council's Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods.
Work is underway to try and tackle the amount of dog mess that is being left by a minority of people.
Cllr Randerson said:
"Certainly right across the borough now it seems to be on the increase. These dog owners are very much in the minority but they're just allowing their dogs to run amok in the streets, not on leads and they're fouling the footpaths, and some of these dog owners just can't cleaning up after them.
"Generally I'm getting complaints from fellow Councillors in various wards. The dog wardens, there are only two of them, but they've been working flat out throughout the pandemic and they're there to try and enforce where they see dog fouling.
"The main priority however is stray dogs. They're trying to contact the owners of stray dogs and making sure the stray dogs are being looked after appropriately. I have a meeting in a couple of weeks time about looking at the best practices from other authorities.
"Rather than just saying 'oh we'll get more dog wardens in', we want to see what the best practices are from other authorities. It's not just a matter of 'we'll throw some more money at the situation', before we do that, we want to make sure that we're doing the right things correctly.
"It's down to education and we want to encourage all owners to obey the rules and pick up after their dogs as this benefits all. I'm working with officers on a new education campaign for this summer and hopefully we'll be able to announce more details in the spring.
"The last 12 months or so have been extremely challenging for the team as with all our frontline staff. We're working hard to ensure the team are protected and their work can continue so I've got nothing but praise for the dog wardens. I've got nothing but praise for the traffic enforcement officers.
"These are the two areas that tend to get the most kind of stick from the public who don't realise the job that they're actually doing. It isn't about collecting cash, and I'm talking specifically about traffic enforcement officers, they're there to ensure the safety of all concerned."