'˜Repulsive' behaviour of dog owners criticised

And the members from Warkworth have also hit out at litter louts who are leaving all sorts of items around the area, including bottles, cans and take-away wrappers. The issue was discussed at last Thursday night’s Warkworth Parish Council meeting following a community tidy-up in March. Areas targeted included Beach Road, St Oswald’s Way, the castle grounds and Station Road, among other places.

Coun Sally Black said: “This produced a vast heap of bags which were stacked in the Beach Road car park for collection. Sadly, some areas were in an appalling state.

“The most common rubbish was bottles, cans, take-away food and drink packaging and, in enormous quantities – and by far the most disgusting – bags of dog dirt. The worst areas for dog dirt, both left on the ground, but also bagged and hung in hedges or thrown in verges, were St Oswald’s Way and the Beach Road.

“We picked up dozens and dozens of bags and, considering people will walk this way along St Oswald’s Way, there might as well be a sign saying: ‘Welcome to Warkworth, where everybody hangs their dog dirt on the hedge!’

“The problem is disgusting, as well as being a health hazard, particularly for children, and I feel we need to decide on a course of action to address the behaviour of some dog owners. It is repulsive.”

Coun John Hobrough added that people are leaving bags of muck on the churchyard walls. Parish council chairman Jeff Watson suggested asking the dog warden about increasing vigilance.

Coun John Lilley added that there was an ‘awful lot’ of cigarette butts in the kerbs, especially around Dial Place, and it is making the centre of the village look ‘extremely scruffy’.

○ To report a dog-fouling incident to the county council, visit tinyurl.com/z7v8xn6