Earlier this year we received complaints from residents in Hesleden about a marked increase in incidents of dog fouling around the village, and specifically on open public spaces and grassed areas used by children (please see posts on this site dated Tuesday 17 January 2017 & Friday 3 February 2017 for background details).
At the time we asked the council to clean up those areas worst affected and to consider any measures proven to be successful in dealing with problems of this nature. We also visited Hesleden Primary School to ask the children to design a poster aimed at deterring irresponsible dog walkers from allowing their pets to make a mess of the village. This project will soon be completed and will produce a full-sized banner for public display near to the school.
Sadly those measures appear to have had limited impact, certainly in some areas, so we have contacted the neighbourhood wardens at county hall again today to ask them to come up with a more effective method of dealing with the problem of dog fouling in the village. In addition we have asked the wardens to come out to Hesleden with us to meet residents and see for themselves the extent of the problem.
Whilst ultimately it is the responsibility of individual dog walkers to clean up after their pets we will make sure that the council does everything in its powers to fulfill its own responsibility and enforce its dog fouling policy in full in areas where it is needed most.
We will update on progress with this matter as soon as we receive a response from the neighbourhood wardens team. In the meantime we have asked that the worst areas are again cleaned up.