Call for more enforcement of anti-dog fouling orders across Eastbourne

The disagreement came as part of a full council meeting on Wednesday (July 26), as councillors debated a motion tabled by Conservative councillor Kshama Shore.

In her original motion, Cllr Shore called on the council to run dedicated enforcement patrols of the town’s Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) around dog fouling and keeping dogs on leads.

The motion also called on the council to report the effect of these patrols to its scrutiny committee every six months and to note that the PSPOs had seen ‘exceptionally little enforcement and are commonly ignored.’

Cllr Shore said: “Why have a PSPO? They deal with nuisances or problems in particular areas which affect the local community’s quality of life. They are used to look after public spaces where antisocial behaviour is a problem.”

She added: “[The veterinary charity PDSA] say 29 per cent of UK adults have a dog, let us assume that is the same proportion for Eastbourne. [We have] around 100,000 people we have in Eastbourne, which must mean we have about 29,000 dogs. If nine out of 10 pick up their dog poop that means 2,900 don’t.

“This is why we need information notices, proper enforcement patrols accountable to scrutiny committee and we need PSPOs in place.”

But this motion didn’t make it to the vote, with Liberal Democrat councillor Amanda Morris tabling an amendment to the motion. This amendment removed the call for dedicated patrols, the scrutiny reports and the noting of the current level of enforcement.

Instead, the amended motion called on the council to support a campaign by Keep Britain Tidy to ‘eradicate’ dog fouling by 2030 and to develop a communications campaign intended to encourage residents to follow the rules.

The amendment did keep proposals to extend the existing PSPOs beyond their current November 2023 expiry date, however.

Cllr Morris said: “The Association of Public Service Excellence states that enforcement of PSPOs are part of a solution, but that it needs to be supported by a wider campaign of promoting responsible dog ownership, and reducing dog fouling.”

She added: “I am a dog walker and I have been so for 12 years now and a dog owner since I was about three. Although I agree with what you are saying, I wonder if fines are the way forward.

“Since Covid there has been a lot more dog ownership, a huge amount of dog ownership. These dog owners probably aren’t sure on the rules, which beaches they can go on with dogs.

“There needs to be more education around it and more information.”

The amendment was not formally accepted by Cllr Shore, although she did suggest that its additional points could be incorporated into her motion.

Cllr Shore said: “I am happy to accept the fact that enforcement of PSPOs is only a part of the solution and that a wider campaign of promoting responsible dog ownership and reducing dog fouling should be carried out.

“But given that EBC didn’t just decide in 2017 ‘yeah, let’s go for a PSPO’ there must have been some kind of campaign to educate, inform and explain the problem. Presumably it didn’t achieve its aim and that’s why they brought the PSPO in force.”