BARNARD Castle town councillors say they are disappointed but not surprised to learn that only one fine has been issued for dog fouling in the past five years.
They want their own temporary reporting system to map out the extent of the problem because they think the online system used by Durham County Council is “putting people off” .
A Durham council official said they were aware it was a serious issue, but very few reports were received from Barnard Castle.
Town resident Chris Thompson made a freedom of information request to the county council after he stepped into dog mess along Newgate last year.
He was told an £80 fixed penalty notice was made in 2017, but there have been no others since then.
Mr Thompson’s request coincided with a bid by town councillor Fiona Turnbull to start a campaign on the issue.
She said: “I am not surprised. I know the problem is much wider. One hot spot is the path from Montalbo School to the bottom of the hill near the cricket club, and another is along the path by William Smith’s foundry.”
Cllr Turnbull believes people are deterred from using the county council’s online portal to report problems because it is too complicated.
She wants to allow people to make complaints about dog fouling to the town council’s office at Woodleigh.
She said: ” We can’t take any action ourselves: enforcement power is with the county council and I think the police as well. What we want to do is get a snapshot of how big the problem is in the area, so we could then go to the county council and say this is what our residents are saying, and that is not reflected in what is reported to you.
“I am disappointed we can’t do more as a town council in terms of enforcement, but we plan to raise awareness.”
Cllr Turnbull said they would be working with schools to create posters as well as the county council’s civic pride team.
She is supported by town councillor Mike McLean who used the county’s online portal to report an incident outside his home in 2020.
He said: “My experience was dreadful. I had CCTV, I knew who the person was, I filled out the form – it wasn’t easy but I managed. The thing is, they weren’t interested.”
He said his complaint was ‘closed’ the next day despite the mess still being outside his house. He pursued the issue and while the mess was cleaned up, progress was not made on the evidence he had. Later he was contacted by a neighbourhood warden for a different part of the county, asking about his “fly-tipping” complaint. He said: “At that point, I just gave up.”
Ian Hoult, neighbourhood protection manager at Durham County Council said: “We get very few reports of dog fouling in the Barnard Castle area – around one per month on average. We know it’s a serious issue and we always encourage people to report it so we can take action.
“One thing that would really help is for people to provide as much information as possible when reporting dog fouling. The more details you give us, the better chance we have of catching the culprits.
“The details that help us are the names or descriptions of the offenders and their dogs, the type of dog or dogs involved, and the location and time of day the offending typically takes place.
“That gives us something to go on and means we can target our enforcement resources most effectively.
“What we tend to receive in most cases is a general report about dog fouling in a given area, which is enough for us to arrange a clean-up but does not give us enough detail to identify and catch those responsible.”
