{"id":76369,"date":"2025-05-05T11:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T11:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/76369\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T11:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T11:52:14","slug":"dog-poo-problem-is-causing-mayhem-on-our-streets-so-why-is-nothing-being-done-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/76369\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Dog poo problem is causing MAYHEM on our streets, so why is nothing being done about it?&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Local residents are taking to &#8216;vigilante justice&#8217; by posting videos of perpetrators online.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_PDP_SDR_010422_vox_005JPG.jpg\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>(Image: DAILY RECORD)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A councillor has blasted Oldham Council over \u2018dog fouling mayhem\u2019 after an FOI revealed zero dog owners have been issued fines so far in 2025. Coun Howard Sykes, leader of the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/oldham\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Oldham<\/a> Liberal Democrat group, criticised the local authority for \u2018neglecting\u2019 the borough\u2019s parks and pavements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Coun Sykes said: \u201cAny resident can see that our parks, green spaces and pavements are looking neglected. The dog fouling is just one problem in a long list. It makes people feel like the Council doesn\u2019t care about local communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cI think most residents would be appalled that something as simple as dog fouling fines is too much to handle for our so-called local leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Oldham Council has a borough-wide policy against dog fouling, which allows it to issue fines of up to \u00a3100. If a person fails to pay, this can result in a court summons and a fine of up to \u00a31,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">But an FOI request to the council seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service confirmed that \u2018no fixed penalty notices for dog fouling have been issued from January 2024 to date\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_Dog-fouling-sign.jpg\" alt=\"You can be fined up to \u00a31,000 for failing to pick up your dog waste.\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>You can be fined up to \u00a31,000 for failing to pick up your dog waste.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">That&#8217;s despite residents regularly taking to social media to air their grievances about the borough\u2019s dog waste problem. One resident posted footage of an incident on Ripponden Road, where a man paused to let his pooch relieve itself in the middle of the high street, before nonchalantly walking off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThis is absolutely disgusting, you should be ashamed,\u201d the resident wrote, anonymously addressing the man. \u201cWill be reporting this to the council!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Denis, a Royton resident claimed she was &#8216;shocked&#8217; to discover more than 60 poo bags tied up and discarded on a public footpath near Cavendish Way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Dog poo, poo bags &amp; litter are reaching ridiculous levels, and not just Royton,&#8221; John, another local resident responded. &#8220;I really don\u2019t know the answer or what\u2019s wrong with people these days.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Others mused that &#8216;there are laws but no one to man them&#8217; and that &#8216;local councils could make money by fining the culprits&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Responding to coun Sykes, coun Chris Goodwin, cabinet holder for Don\u2019t Trash Oldham, said: \u201cDog fouling is of course a problem that no one wants in their community. However, in order to issue a fine for dog fouling then evidence needs to be produced and reported to us. If coun Sykes is seeing this happening he&#8217;s welcome to do his bit and submit a report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cOur Environmental Enforcement team is focussed on tackling issues that generate the most complaints from residents. Last year, the team received more than 5,700 fly-tipping reports, and investigating them and issuing fines to offenders has been their main priority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cWe do of course fully understand the concerns about dog fouling and recognise its impact on our parks, streets and public spaces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Furthermore, we strongly urge the minority of dog owners who don\u2019t pick up after their dogs to do the right and responsible thing and pick up after their dogs \u2013 it is their responsibility to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local residents are taking to &#8216;vigilante justice&#8217; by posting videos of perpetrators online.(Image: DAILY RECORD) A councillor has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,690,393,4884,2465,1286,14984,285,17296,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-76369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dogs","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-oldham","14":"tag-oldham-council","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-royton","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114455088138348190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}