Street teams urge residents to report dog fouling (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Street teams urge residents to report dog fouling

4:29pm Tuesday 12th March 2013 in News

THE head of Darlington’s street maintenance team has urged people to report incidents of dog fouling to help tackle the problem.

John Herman, head of StreetScene at Darlington Borough Council, said that without information about where dog fouling was taking place it was difficult to keep the streets clean and target persistent offenders.

Mr Herman has asked people to report dog fouling through the Darlington Borough Council website, which will allow StreetScene to build up a picture of dog fouling hotspots and also act quicker to clean up the mess.

Speaking at a public meeting in Middleton St George, which has seen a recent rise in dog fouling, Mr Herman said: “We are not having a massive amount of success [in tackling the problem] because we are not getting information through that helps us target offenders.

“We need people to give us information – if we know when it’s happening and even who the probable offenders are, we have no problem knocking on people’s doors.”

Mr Herman said that patrols would be carried out in known hotspots, particularly during the early mornings, to try and catch people in the act of allowing their dog to foul.

Allowing a dog to foul in a public place without cleaning it up is an offence punishable with a fixed penalty notice, or a fine of up to £1,000 if the case goes to court.

Being unaware that the dog has fouled, or not having a suitable means of removing the mess is not a reasonable excuse for failing to clean up after your dog.

To report dog fouling visit darlington.gov.uk/reportit