Pick up the poo!
MELTHAM PUPILS DETERMINED TO BEAT THE VANDALS WHEN IT COMES TO CLEARING UP ‘DOG POO ALLEY’
POSTERS urging people to clean up after their pets are back on display in a cut-through known as “dog poo alley’.’
Youngsters at Meltham CE Primary School designed the colourful posters after being disgusted by the amount of dog dirt left on a footpath they use on their weekly trip from school to choose books at Meltham library.
Meltham town councillor and library volunteer Pam Murgatroyd laminated the posters and stapled them to fencing running along the 100-metre footpath.
But the youngsters were dismayed on Wednesday last week to find their laminated posters torn down from fencing and left scattered in the mud – just four hours after they had been put up.
Pam, who came up with the posters idea after talking to pupils about the dangers of dog mess, was joined by a group of Year 4 pupils yesterday putting most of the posters back up.
She said: “We have managed to salvage more than 30 of the 47 laminated posters. We have washed them and put them back .”
Pam said that on several occasions children going to the library had to make a detour to avoid the route – nicknamed “dog poo alley” – at the top of Green Lane and Clarke Lane because of the amount of animal waste left on the path.
Commenting on the vandalism, she said: “We have no idea who pulled the posters down. Someone said it was kids from school, which I doubt. I thought it might be some disgruntled dog owner, but I doubt they would have pulled that many posters down in that amount of time.
“I put notes through the doors at houses asking if anyone had any objections to the posters to call me, but noone has.”
She added: “While we were putting the posters back up yesterday morning people walking their dogs said they were glad we were putting them back up.”
Pam said she has had 1,000 flyers printed to distribute around the village asking people to clean up after their pets.
“It has been a problem for many years,” she said. “It’s not just the mess dog dirt causes, it is dangerous to children.”
Meltham Town Council has been campaigning to stop the problem by supplying bins and bags.
While Kirklees no longer provides dog dirt bins, Pam said there were two blue rubbish bins close to the footpath so there was no excuse for dog walkers not to bag and bin their pets’ waste.