CHILDREN’S ideas are the inspiration for many of the proposals put forward for a campaign to tackle dog fouling in Barnard Castle.
A town council group formed to look into the anti-social problem is considering creating a TikTok video and giving away free dog poo bags after hearing from children at two primary schools in the town.
Cllr Fiona Turnbull, who led the group, told the council’s services committee a combined approach involving the county’s civic pride team, the town council, local neighbourhood warden and schools was needed.
She said discussions with neighbourhood warden Mark Thexton and the civic pride team had revealed there was a persistent dog fouling problem in King Street and enforcement letters had been sent to people living in the area. She suggested the council produce posters and leaflets designed by school children to create awareness of the issue .
Cllr Turnbull used the example of a leaflet she had picked up while on holiday which gave general information about dogs and pet care.
She added: “It seemed to be a far more positive message about how you look after your dog rather than “don’t let it foul” so we thought that might actually persuade people to be more careful about their dogs.”
The group requested the town council set aside £500 towards creating the leaflet as well as providing dog poo bags which could be given out for free at Woodleigh and other centres such as The Witham. Cllr Turnbull said: “Again this very much came from the children. I know historically people have felt this hasn’t been good use of public money, but if the county council are still providing dog poo bags and the children thought it was an excellent idea, we are suggesting a trial for three months to see how it goes.”
Part of the cash could be given as prizes for competitions for children, she said.
She added: “I am hoping if the posters are designed by children as well they will be more effective. One of the more innovative suggestions from the children was perhaps to do a TikTok video to raise awareness of dog fouling and reducing it.”
A further suggestion was to promote the neighbourhood warden’s profile by putting his photograph on the town noticeboard and promoting his activities. A final recommendation was to allow people to report dog fouling incidents to the town council for a short period.
Cllr Turnbull said: “It has to be very clear that it is not the town council’s job to log complaints on the portal. People would have to do that themselves independently for action to be taken, this is so the town council can see the extent of the problem and then maybe map the areas where there are particular concerns.
“We thought a month would be enough time to get a snapshot of what is going on, and obviously we don’t want to overburden staff in the offices either.”
Services committee chairman Cllr Frank Harrison said he supported the group’s recommendations and said the cash request would be considered by the resources committee. He added: “I will support it because I am a dog-owner myself and I have one in training which is very difficult.”
