Councils across Scotland have struggled to find ways to tackle dog fouling with even the threat of fines of up to £500 no deterrent to the worst offenders.
Now local school children are hoping they may have hit upon a solution, creating a map of the worst areas around their school in a bid to encourage owners to be more responsible.
READ MORE: West Lothian riverbank homes would destroy otter habitat say villagers
Pupils at Harrysmuir Primary, in Ladywell, Livingston, often use the surrounding woodland as outdoor classrooms, and decided to identify the worst hit sites around their school. Their mapping project followed on from a litter pick.
Principal teacher at Harrysmuir, Elaine Carder explained: “Harrysmuir Primary School regularly uses the area surrounding the school for activities, particularly the wooded areas opposite and adjacent to the school. The children recognise these areas as outdoor classrooms.
“At the moment I am working with two groups of P6 children on the John Muir Award. As part of the work towards this they carried out two litter picks on the 17 and 18 January in the area surrounding the school. Two members of the local community joined us to do this.
“Altogether they collected 8 bags of litter and 2 buckets of glass/glass bottles. Whilst we were doing this we noticed that there was a lot of dog dirt about, and we are now planning to map the areas that the dog dirt is found so we can see if there is a reason for this. We will share this information with the Ladywell Regeneration Group who have already mapped the position of bins in the area.
“In addition, our P7s have also created some posters to try to encourage those using the area to put their litter in the bin and pick up after their dogs.”
Councillor Maria MacAulay praised the work of the pupils and suggested it could be introduced in other local primaries.
“Dog fouling is a big problem around all schools," she said.
The schools project was welcomed by a local resident Dr Fionn Toolis who spoke to a recent meeting of the Livingston South Local Area Committee. He made a plea for more enforcement against dog fouling especially around schools.
Dr Toolis told the committee he had been bitten by a dog, and his daughter had been intimidated by the owner of an aggressive dog. There is also a lot of dog fouling around his daughter’s school.
He praised the Harrysmuir project, saying: “It sounds like what they are doing is a very good thing. It’s like shaming the owners. It ‘s saying we are not okay with this, and we’d like you not to do it.
“It might change a mind or two. It’s about changing minds. I know it’s very hard to control in terms of dog fouling. It seems that it’s not enforced at all and it emboldens some people to behave the way they do. It would be nice if the council were a bit more proactive about it.”
Committee chair, Councillor Lawrence Fitzpatrick said it was a tiny minority of owners who allowed their dogs to foul without clearing it up. He suggested Dr Toolis attend the next meeting of the committee when an officer from Environmental Health could address issues and answer questions.
The council has an initiative called Paws for Thought to encourage responsible dog owners to keep streets and parks clean.
The Environmental Enforcement team within NETs and Land Services continue to monitor specific problems that have been highlighted.
Dog walkers are encouraged to pick up after the dogs in their care and dispose of it responsibly into "any bin". The general public are encouraged to report known offenders. Offenders will be issued fixed penalty notices.
Extensive information on responsible dog ownership is on the council website:- https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/32093/Tackling-Dog-Fouling-Paws-for-Thought
