Council announces £100 fines for anybody not picking up their pet’s mess

DOG owners who fail to clean up the mess their pets leave behind could be hit with £100 fines under a new council crackdown.

Camden is using a PSPO (Public Space Protection Order) to give police and council officers the power to get tough on those who do not pick up the poo.

The measures were agreed at a cabinet meeting last week during which there was a special plea to send a team to tackle a dog mess problem in the streets around West Hampstead Primary School.

Ward councillor Richard Olszewski, the Town Hall’s finance chief, said: “I receive a lot of complaints about what’s happening around in the streets there, Broomsleigh Street and Ravenshaw Street. Who knows it may only be one dog owner but it’s either – and excuse the detail – spread across the pavement, or they go halfway. They bag it and then leave it in the tree pits.”

He added: “There’s even some cases where someone went to the length of putting a nail in a tree and then hung the bag on the nail.”

Cllr Olszewski said that some dog owners did not realise that they could put the bags of excrement in normal street bins and that they did not have to wait to find a specific dog mess bin.

The PSPO can also mean fines for anybody found not in control of their dogs and marks off some public areas as dog-free.

These include children’s play areas, fenced sports areas, nature conservation areas, flower beds and planted beds. Also a no-go zone is the north of Camden Square Gardens and the north of Primrose Gardens, and all of  Chalcot Square Gardens and the Fortune Green picnic area. There is a special note for water features with fines for anybody who allows  their dogs to urinate in them.

Dogs must be kept on a lead in Hampstead Cemetery.

Environment chief Councillor Adam Harrison said: “The numbers of cases of irresponsible ownership are small, but we know that they can have a really big impact on a given neighbourhood or in a particular park or housing estate, with problems often coming down to just perhaps one animal and one owner.”

He added: “We consulted on these proposals late last year and I’m really pleased to say that we had 644 responses in total to the consultation. We had lots of signs up around our public open spaces and parks – so lots of people saw those and took part and they expressed support for the measures including very strong support at 98 per cent for the anti dog fouling action.”

Community safety chief Councillor Nadia Shah said: “We all know the value the pet can have in terms of benefits for mental health for individuals and companionship. I only recently became a pet owner and I can’t imagine my life without my pet, although it’s not a dog. He’s a cat – a very beautiful cat. But pet owners must be responsible for the well-being of their pet and others around us too.

“We’ve heard of too many incidents – beyond Camden – of people being unable to control their dogs leading to extremely serious incidents where people have been hurt very badly and in some cases lost their lives. Also our public spaces being used as dog toilets, where the enjoyment of residents and children is taken away, isn’t fair.”

She added: “Obviously, I support this policy and responsible dog owners do not need to worry. It’s only the irresponsible dog owners who need to worry and they need to do things right and we do need to hold them to account if their actions are affecting others.”