Dog mess ‘all over the place’, says councillor calling for tougher action

A COUNCILLOR who gets sent dog-fouling videos said he would like more action to be taken against irresponsible owners.

Cllr Peter Black said dog mess was “all over the place”, although he conceded it was very difficult to catch and identify culprits.

Speaking at a scrutiny committee meeting, Cllr Black referred to a council report which said only one fixed penalty notice had been issued to owners who didn’t pick up after their pet between April 2021 and March 2022.

“It just seems to me we’re not doing a great deal to tackle that,” he said.

Chris Howell, the council’s head of waste management, parks and cleansing, said officers would need to see the dog foul and then approach the owner “there and then”, but that he would be happy to check how other councils approached this topic.

Swansea Council received 468 dog mess complaints in 2021-22. Cllr Black said: “I even get residents sending me videos, which is not very pleasant for breakfast, I can tell you. Even with the videos you can’t identify the person, unless they know who it is.”

Mr Howell said when officers attended dog-fouling “hot spots” in high-vis clothing, all owners did the right thing. Going undercover, he said, would more likely result in additional fixed penalty notices, but he questioned whether it would change behaviour longer term.

Mr Howell added that putting in extra resources to tackle dog-fouling would mean less resource for another part of the service.

Cllr Matthew Jones said dogfouling was of the biggest sources of complaints that elected members had to deal with, and that he would like to see the enforcement figure rise. He was also interested in finding out how many council officers had powers to issue dog-fouling fines - it would, he said, help “manage expectations”.

Last year the committee was advised that more officers were being trained to do so – and Mr Howell said he would provide the number in writing.