Castle Douglas Primary School has recently been plagued with dog fouling outside the school.
Pupils, parents and teachers have been disgusted by the thoughtless few who fail to pick up after their dogs.
A report was made to the Council’s Community Safety Team, which was asked to investigate how to improve the situation.
The school and the Council have collaborated on a poster project to prick the conscience of those causing the problem.
More than 190 pupils put colouring pens to paper to design a poster aimed at highlighting the problem their school faces.
Headteacher David Tyeson said: “Pupils, parents and staff have raised dog fouling as a major issue on the Safer Route to School. Large deposits are often found at the school gates. The pupils, through the poster competition, are doing their bit to highlight this irresponsible behaviour.”
Tesco Castle Douglas donated Easter eggs as prizes for competition winners and small chocolate eggs for everyone who took part. The store’s Community Champion, Liz Hunter, said “ I’m always looking for local initiatives to get involved in. Tthe area around Castle Douglas Primary School has had many issues with dog fouling and it is something that blights the wider community.”
At a prize ceremony held in the school, the entries were viewed and judges had the difficult job of choosing winners and runners-:
Primary 1-2: 1st Isla Telfer P2A, 2nd Ruby Hope P2A, 3rd Riley Pflanz P1D
Primary 3-4: 1st Mia Donnelly P4, Abbie White P3/4, Lexi Watts P4
Primary 5, 6 & 7: 1st Brooke Walker P6/7, 2nd Georgina Mae White P7, 3rd Kelly Malcolm P5.
Dog fouling is by far the most frequent complaint received by the Council’s Community Safety Teams.
The Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 states that it is an offence to fail to clean up immediately and properly dispose of your dog’s waste after your dog has fouled in a public area without reasonable excuse.
For info on penalty for dog fouling see: http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Dog-fouling-fine-doubles-2143.aspx
Councillor Archie Dryburgh, chairman of the DGFirst Management Committee, said:
“Our Community Safety Officers continue to broadcast the message that dog fouling won’t be tolerated in our region. They do this through educational initiatives and rigorous enforcement of the environmental legislation. This is what our communities demand. To assist us, we ask that any members of the public who witness dog fouling contact their local Community Safety Team with as much information as possible to enable us to deal with offenders.”
For info on how we tackle dog fouling, see: http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2578
Diane McColm, Senior Community Safety Officer, said: “The local Community Safety Team will deal with all offenders by issuing a Fixed Penalty Notice. The penalty for the offence of not immediately removing dog fouling increases from £40 to £80 on 1st April 2016. We’re determined to stamp out this antisocial behaviour by the minority of dog owners that seem not to care.”
