Mum Allows Dog to Poo on Primary School Playground, Prompts Call for Action

A MUM allowed her to dog to poo on a primary school playground in front of other parents, a councillor has claimed. 
Labour councillor Maria Stevens highlighted the incident and asked how Monnmouthshire County Council colleagues can report dog fouling. 
Caldicot’s Severn ward councillor said she witnessed the fouling last week, at her local primary school. 
“A parent took her dog out and let it do its business in the playground. I should be able to pick up my phone and say I know the woman, and it was a woman, are you going to do something about it?,” said Cllr Stevens. 
She was told anyone can report dog fouling through the council’s hubs and David Jones, the head of public protection, said there is also “shared responsibility” across the council and said: “In a school it would be for a headteacher to speak to the parent and say it is unacceptable.” 
The council’s place scrutiny committee was discussing a proposed Public Spaces Protection Order which will require anyone with a dog to pick up its poo and carry a bag to dispose of it. The order will also ban dogs from school playgrounds and marked sports pitches. 
Cllr Stevens, said: “This must be one of the most controversial topics we’ve had to discuss.” 
Cabinet member Paul Griffiths, who will have to approve the order, was listening to the scrutiny committee’s discussions where members raised concerns about enforcement and the need to make people aware of the requirements and restrictions. 
At present dog walkers are only required to pick up their poo in specified areas of Monmouthshire. Councillors were told 18 of the 22 local authorities in Wales have already introduced orders similar to that being proposed. 
Abergavenny Park ward Labour member Cllr Tudor Thomas said dog fouling is a problem at sports pitches: “The rugby club try very hard. Sometimes there is so much dogs’ mess they have to clear the pitch for 10 minutes before they can actually play.” 
Cllr Griffiths, the Labour councillor for Chepstow Castle and Larkfield, said he’d previously lived, and served as a councillor, in Rhondda Cynon Taf where a similar order was introduced around 10 years ago and said it had led to a change in public attitudes. 
He also said a player at his local rugby club, in the area, had suffered an amputation due to an infection from dog faeces. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​