Torfaen council issued two dog fouling fines in three years

Torfaen Borough Council, which has rules in place making it an offence to fail to remove dog faeces from any land to which the public have access, has also introduced regulations requiring dogs are kept on leads in some areas and banned from others. 

But it also issued just two £100 fines for breaches of the dogs on lead rules in the same period, stretching back to the 2021/22 financial year. From then until the end of the 2023/24 financial year in March it had received 385 reports of people failing to follow rules controlling dogs. 

The fines for dog fouling and ignoring the requirement to keep a dog on a lead where issued in the 2021/22 financial year, the first year it introduced dogs on lead areas under the powers known as public spaces protection orders. 

The Labour-run council’s cabinet has agreed to renew the rules, which have to be reviewed every three years to ensure they are effective, when they expire this December. 

It has also agreed to consider extending the controls to further areas, following a public consultation, in which people requested controls be introduced along the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal towpath and Pontypool Park. 

But Cwmbran Coed Eva councillor Fiona Cross highlighted just two fines for dog fouling had been issued in the three year period and asked how the council was measuring if its rules were effective. 

Council director Mark Thomas said enforcement is similar to issuing parking tickets and said: “Where our officers are visible people tend to comply, where they are not they relapse into their old habits. It is difficult to catch.” 

The council is, the cabinet was told, only one of two in Wales that has given its civil enforcement officers the dual role of issuing parking tickets and powers to issue penalty notices for dog fouling and other breaches of the dog orders. 

Mr Thomas said patrols are carried out in response in areas where the public reports dog fouling. 

Cllr Cross said she understood the pressure on the enforcement team which has only four officers but said, while she supported renewing the existing orders, was concerned the council could “raise expectations” among the public by suggesting controls could be expanded to new areas. 

Council leader, Panteg member, Anthony Hunt, said: “As a junior football coach I have to clear faeces every time we play football and if it’s been raining a bit you do see people just sat in their cars.” 

He added: “Dog poo can have serious consequences especially for young people and people have gone blind when dog poo has got in their eyes.” 

He said the council also has to appeal for people to follow the example of responsible dog walkers.