News / Watch out dog walkers, you’re being watched!
A NEW council campaign to stamp down on dog fouling on Lerwick’s streets is already having an impact.
Residents in central Lerwick have signed up to a new Dogwatch campaign to blow the whistle on irresponsible owners who fail to clean up after their pets.
It follows on from the famous “pink poo” campaign launched by Shetland Islands Council in 2010, which is now being copied throughout Scotland.
A successful pilot Dogwatch campaign was run in Lerwick’s Old North Road after Lerwick community council complained about the level of dog waste littering the street.
Now the community council has asked the SIC to step in to some of the town’s other worst affected residential areas after reporting a “massive” increase in dog fouling.
Last month neighbourhood support workers door knocked every house in Hillhead, Brevik Road, Thorfinn Street, Rognvald Street, Clairmont Place and Pitt Lane to get residents to sign up, with 20 agreeing to put Dogwatch posters up in their windows.
SIC environmental health executive manager Maggie Sandison said folk are being asked to report when they see someone failing to pick up after their dog.
“We are asking for a description of the person, their name if you know it, a description of the dog and the date and time it happened,” she said.
“If we get really good evidence we can use that to serve a fixed penalty notice of £60, or if we know when it is happening we can send in extra patrols at that time to keep a look out.”
Sandison said that the Old North Road pilot scheme had seen a significant reduction in dog fouling and just sending out the letters to the latest households had made an impact.
“We have already seen improvements in the level of dog fouling in the area,” she said.
Dog poo remains the number on issue of concern in Lerwick and the council is always looking for new way to tackle the problem.
Sandison’s famous “pink poo” campaign, where offending piles were sprayed with a pink dye to highlight the problem, has captured the country’s imagination.
“It’s taken off in Scotland and I am always getting calls about how we did it,” she said.
She added that the council has also managed to re-introduce free dog waste bags available from dispensers at popular dog walking paths at The Knab and Clickimin thanks to a donation from a local business.
The company, who remain anonymous, were caught dumping commercial waste in a community skip and were threatened with legal action.
Rather than go to court, the firm agreed to clean up the area they had messed up, and paid £1,500 to the council for disposing of the waste they had dumped and to pay for an environmental campaign.
The SIC provided free dog waste bags until last year when they were stopped as part of the budget cuts.
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