Castlereagh Alliance Councillor Michael Long has called for an extension of a pilot scheme rolled out by the Council’s Enforcement Section, aiming to tackle dog fouling in the borough.
The pilot programme saw the existing service extended to cover early mornings and evenings from May to September, with the results showing an additional 700 interactions with members of the public and ten additional fixed penalty notices issued.
Councillor Michael Long said: “For many years I have been asking the Council to extend the hours during which enforcement activity is undertaken to tackle issues like dog fouling and it is clear from the pilot that the extended hours have proved effective and resulted in more penalty notices being issued.
“I have now called on the Council to extend this pilot and have extra operational hours throughout the year. Obviously dog fouling is not just a problem during office hours and so it is sensible that our enforcement team also operate outside these hours so that the problem of dog fouling can be tackled more effectively in the Borough.
“I hope that this request will result in a better service for our ratepayers as problems of stray dogs and fouling are raised with Councillors on a regular basis.”