EHJ December 2004, pages 374-376

Dog fouling is a messy business that costs councils millions to clean up every year. Peter Gibson reveals the findings of Encams latest report and why councils must redouble efforts to reduce dog littering.

At the inaugural meeting of an all party parliamentary group on local environmental quality at Westminster last month, Wigan MP Neil Turner revealed that he, like politicians of all persuasions, gets more letters from constituents about dog fouling than any other issue.

Had he said that a few years ago, when experts claimed that 4.6 million owners allowed their pets to poo on public land and a major survey revealed that 95 per cent of people were disgusted by the amount of dog defecation in their neighbourhood, this news would not have been surprising. But following a raft of headline-grabbing prosecutions and a number of highly successful campaigns, there seemed a real sense that this most reviled blight had disappeared forever.

Not so. A new survey by Encams - the group behind the Keep Britain Tidy campaign - shows that the cost of curbing dog fouling is a hefty one and the public is still far from happy at the amount of faeces they find on footpaths, beaches, at parks and on playing fields.

Ironically, it was the self-same Encams who were saluted by many for the perceived disappearance of the problem. In 2002, they launched a hugely successful poster campaign with local authorities, featuring hard-hitting images of real dog poo and brandishing slogans such as, "No (s**t) - don't leave it for someone else to take home" and "Bull (s**t) - don't believe people who tell you it's not a health hazard". Comic actor Ricky Tomlinson launched the drive by sitting on a toilet in Clapham Common, thus ensuring that it made tabloid headlines. The careful placement of the posters close to parks and playgrounds struck a chord too, helping to reduce fouling in those areas by 40 per cent.

Indeed, it was also Encams who highlighted how this drive and others across the country, allied to a spate of prosecutions, had shrunk the problem so significantly. In its local environmental quality survey of England, the group reported a 27 per cent dip in dog fouling - which could be now found at just 8 per cent of sites surveyed. In a nutshell, the figures claimed it was nothing like as big an issue as fast food junk, discarded chewing gum or cigarette-related rubbish.

The latest Encams report quizzed local authorities in England about the scale of the dog fouling problem during the last financial year, including what they spent cleaning it up, what services they offered to report and shift it and what education programmes, marketing campaigns and enforcement drives they'd run to reduce it. The unusually high response rate to the survey proved that even at county hall people love to voice an opinion about dog fouling.

All respondents said it was a problem. Encams has sent out a number of similar questionnaires of late on issues as diverse as fly-tipping, the night-time economy and graffiti, but this is the first occasion where all 100 per cent ticked the "yes" box - with around a third of respondents rating dog fouling as a major issue.

Only one council had received no complaints from their residents, with a further 32 per cent responding to less than 50 complaints. The biggest share (47 per cent) had over 100 complaints, with 4 per cent receiving over 500. One beleaguered borough had to deal with a staggering 1,200 complaints. The average per authority worked out at 150 - which means that nationally, the total for England was 52,590 complaints about dog fouling in the last year alone.

Of course, the fact that many councils have an increasingly open door policy to the public means that residents are much more willing to get in contact. But it was good to see that 42 per cent had a hotline for reporting dog fouling incidents in public spaces and that 53 per cent had a team dedicated (some with stringent time targets) to cleaning up pooch poo.

Whether these services are also marketed properly is another matter - since councils frequently admit to finding it hard to connect with their residents. That said 73 per cent had carried out a campaign or education programme to curb dog fouling over the last two years. These included school visits, enforcement drives (recent newspaper reports claim that during a one-day swoop this summer, Liverpool MDC dispatched 17 errant owners to magistrates courts), leaflet drops and the distribution of free poop scoops.

But mounting campaigns and indeed cleaning-up dog fouling, costs. The range of spending in England varied from £500 to £1.3m per authority, per year. While 45 per cent of respondents invested between £500 and £20,000 tackling the problem, a further 21 per cent shelled-out over £60,000 - a considerable cost for cash-strapped councils. The average bill for authorities clocked in at over £61,000, meaning that council taxpayers in England forked out just over £22m last year to clean up dog poo.

Regionally, densely populated areas bore most of the brunt, with the north west recording the highest average for complaints by some distance (272 per council). It was interesting to learn, however, that the east of England - famed for its coast and countryside - paid out the most to clean-up dog fouling. On average, councils there spent over three times what their counterparts in London did (£162,000 per authority, compared to just £55,000 in the capital).

With such hefty sums being spent on cleansing and public concerns rising, it seems that the confidence expressed in some quarters that dog fouling had been beaten, was at best premature and at worst, just plain wrong. But far from being disappointed with the survey's results, Encams is encouraged that the factors that reduced dog fouling by such a significant amount back in 2002, are still present. Councils and government are taking the issue much more seriously, owners are no longer embarrassed about picking up after their pet and residents are shouting about dog fouling in public places - louder and more vociferously than ever before.

To the person on the street, a major reduction of 27 per cent might be encouraging - but one blob of dog fouling on their street or at their playground is still one blob too many. And who can blame them for thinking this way? The problem is unpleasant enough but it is the person on the street who reads lurid headlines about children contracting Toxocariasis and losing their eyesight - which makes them naturally concerned. They should continue to voice their feelings because by doing so, they are making councils, the government and indeed Encams, sit up and take notice.

Arguably, this public pressure has forced local authorities to introduce better procedures to report and respond to complaints. While some have mounted hugely successful drives, the fact that 27 per cent had done nothing at all, gives cause for concern. Surely a few quid spent on education now, might allay public concerns and reduce dog fouling in the long term.

Still, their cause isn't helped by the fact that some dog wardens are spending too much time dealing with strays and dangerous dogs. For a nation of animal lovers, we have precious few education messages on good dog ownership - and while organisations such as The Dog's Trust (formerly known as the National Canine Defence League) do a sterling job at road shows and "chip and snip" events, councils and other bodies could do more, too.

The government has realised of late that the public space is a major political issue. Their desire to sharpen up legislation on dog fouling has got to be applauded and the sooner ancient bylaws, which cover only certain parts of public land, are replaced by use of the Dogs Fouling of Land Act across the board, the better. The hypothecation of fines, which means authorities can keep monies instead of sending them to the Treasury, has also made the process of enforcement much easier. And the government should continue to listen to council wardens "on the ground" and improve legislation, accordingly.

Finally, Encams needs to challenge itself to come up with fresh campaign-ing ideas to persuade all owners to clean up after their pet. The latest word from surveyors carrying out the next local environmental quality survey of England (due for release in February), is that dog fouling has risen - but only gradually and thankfully to nothing like the level it was a couple of years ago.

"We need to guard against complacency," says Encams' marketing director Jo Butcher. "And we also have to ensure that we campaign on what matters most to people on the street. While figures in a survey might suggest that a problem is on the decline, we must pursue our goals relentlessly until it is beaten completely.

"Together with local and central government and more crucially the public, we have made significant progress. We must now build on this, and if this report makes us redouble our efforts then so much the better. The blight of dog fouling in public places simply must be stopped-- and we won't rest until it is."

For more on dog fouling contact Rebecca Parker, rebecca.parker@encams.org