Issue - items at meetings - Dog Control Orders

Report of the Strategic Director Place

49.1    The Environmental Health Manager introduced the report on dog fouling and set the context of the work of the environmental health team, which comprises the equivalent of 4.1 full-time officers.

49.2    He told the meeting that during the year the team had collected 400 stray dogs, of which 125 were reported ‘out of office hours’. There were 222 investigations of animal welfare, plus 17 animal cruelty cases and 239 incidents of dog attacks.

49.3    Including inspections of pet shops and zoos miscellaneous inquires and miscellaneous, this amounted to more than 2,000 recorded activities in the year. Of these there were 226 patrols and 293 investigations dealing with dog fouling.

49.4    The Environmental Health Manager referred to the large areas of the city that could be affected by dog fouling and were all patrolled; around 200 open spaces, historic squares and cemeteries, coastline and thousands of streets.

49.5    There had been big improvements compared with twenty years ago when there was no requirement to pick up after dogs. Dog Control Orders had been introduced under recent legislation and dogs were banned from children’s play areas. Park ranges and seafront officers had been trained in collecting evidence to be used in court; there were now 20 authorised and equipped officers.

49.6    There was already close working with partners including the Police, Local Action Teams and Friends of the Parks plus RSPCA. It was the Irresponsible dog owners – who are only the minority of dog owners -  that needed to be dealt with.

49.7    Brighton & Hove had a record of innovation nationally, being the first local authority to bring a successful prosecution on animal mutilation and the first to develop a code of conduct for professional dog walkers. The Environmental Health Manager was proud of the team, who worked well beyond the call of duty.

49.8    Members were pleased at the work in progress and agreed that the town centres had improved over the years. But they stressed that dog fouling was unacceptable particularly in places where children play. It had been identified in a Citizen’s Panel survey as of higher priority even than animal cruelty.  

49.9    The Committee discussed patterns of behaviour of irresponsible dog owners plus the difficulties of gathering robust evidence and issuing penalty charge notices. Some ‘hotspot’ areas were flagged up.

49.10 There were a number of suggestions for example on innovative types of scientific evidence for use in court, further publicity and work with dog-walker businesses and ‘communities’ of dog owners and the potential role of additional officers such as PCSOs.

49.10  Members were supportive of the team’s work and thanked the officers. They asked that their positive ideas be followed up and agreed to refer the report with the minutes of the meeting to Environment CMM.

49.11  RESOLVED 1) that the report be noted

2) That the report and minutes of this meeting be referred to Environment CMM.