Northern Ireland council to consider dog poo hotline to allow residents to report incidents of fouling

The motion put to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council by Alderman Billy Ashe MBE and it also proposed the hours of wardens be extended to include night time and early morning patrol of hotspot areas.

Alderman Ashe named Marine Highway, Carrickfergus and Carrickfergus Marina as “hotspots” and said his patience and that of constituents has been “exhausted” and nobody appears to be “taking the issue seriously or care”.

“The issue of dog fouling is not a pleasant subject but one with which the council has not got to grips since Mid and East Antrim came into existence. I believe from Covid, the issue has got worse.”

He went on to say he would have expected the private company contracted by the council to tackle littering and dog fouling to have made a “huge impact” on this issue. Fixed penalties for dog fouling in Mid and East Antrim have increased almost ten-fold since the appointment of Waste Investigations Support and Enforcement (WISE) in April 2021, rising from nine in 2020/21 to 84 in 2021/22.

Ald Ashe added: “I am asking officers to bring forward a strategy that we can enforce and help to eradicate this health hazard and social problem once and for all.”

DUP Ald Paul Reid added; “In Larne Cemetery, there will be dog fouling not just on driveways but on loved ones’ graves. This is about empowering staff who see dogs off the lead. It is not the dogs’ fault. It is the owners’ fault.