At the start of Love Parks Week, Liverpool City Council is joining forces with Keep Britain Tidy to call on dog owners across the city to bag and bin their pup’s poop!
New research by Keep Britain Tidy has discovered that the amount of dog mess being left by irresponsible owners has increased since the start of 2021 – the equivalent of 193 wheelie bin loads across the North West each day.
Since the start of the pandemic, it’s estimated the dog population in the UK has grown from nine million to around 13 million, and as more and more people added a furry friend to their lives, a less appealing rise in dog fouling has accompanied it.
Liverpool spends around £9.5m a year cleaning up litter, so the council has partnered with Keep Britain Tidy to tackle litter in the city and change behaviour – with a summertime focus on litter in parks and dog fouling.
Linked to this, a month-long consultation on a draft Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) consultation has also been launched. It would see owners fined for failing to bag and dispose of their dog mess and is in response to over 1,800 dog fouling complaints between January 2020 and January 2022.
Love Parks Week is an annual campaign run by Keep Britain Tidy to celebrate the variety of parks and green spaces – from large urban parks to small local playgrounds – and encourage people to value and respect them.
It has been set up to recognise, celebrate and support all the hard work volunteers do up and down the country to maintain and protect them. More information is available at http://www.loveparks.org.
Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Cllr Abdul Qadir, said: “Our parks are there for everyone to enjoy, but unfortunately some people aren’t being responsible when it comes to disposing of their dog’s waste.
“There’s been an increase in unbagged dog poo being left on the ground and even bagged dog poo being left hanging from places like railings or trees – which isn’t acceptable.
“As part of our partnership with Keep Britain Tidy, we have an opportunity to change people’s mindset when it comes to littering – alongside legal proposals that would see on-the-spot fines for those who don’t comply.”
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, Chief Executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Anyone who owns a dog knows that they should pick up after them and, with the massive increase in dog ownership over the past two years, it has never been more important for every owner to do the right thing and clear up after their pet.
“The North West’s wonderful parks and green spaces should be a safe space for everyone to enjoy – places we can all love – so it’s absolutely vital that dog owners in the region are responsible and bag their dog’s poo and bin it.”