Agenda item

Following approval on 26 January 2017 by the Licensing and Regulatory Committee, a consultation was held on a proposal to make a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO).  The Senior Community Safety Officer introduced the results of that consultation.

These Orders could be made on any land open to the air that the public had a right or entitlement of access to. This meant that the legislation could apply to land belonging to local authorities, as well as, for example, Church grounds and land belonging to a resident owned management company.

The proposed PSPO aimed to reduce occurrences of uncleared dog fouling in the District by requiring fouling to be picked up in all public spaces (within the definition of public in this legislation), and by requiring dog waste to be properly disposed of in a general or dog waste bin.

Public consultation was held from 13 February 2017 to 27 March 2017. This exceeded the statutory minimum consultation period of 30 days, and met the standard council consultation period of 6 weeks.  A Public Notice was placed in the local media on Thursday 9 February 2017 as required by legislation, and articles on the consultation were placed in several local newspapers covering the District, on social media and on the West Lindsey website.

Statutory consultees included:

-       Police and Crime Commissioner

-       Local police Inspector

-       Lincolnshire County Council highways

-       Parish and Town Councils

-       Elected members of the Council

-       Church diocese

132 responses were received on the consultation from a wide cross section of the District with 92% of respondents (119 responses) agreeing that uncleared dog fouling was an issue in their locality.  99% of respondents (128 responses) supported the making of a PSPO.

84 comments were received, with the top five topics being as follows:

1.    How will the order be enforced?

2.    Great idea

3.    Signage is important as part of the order

4.    Publicity needs to be undertaken

5.    More dog bins required in some areas

The report set out further explanation in response to the questions raised, in terms of enforcement, publicity, signage, dog bins (the publicity would highlight that general waste bins could now be used for dog waste).

Members of the Committee welcomed the report, and agreed that dog fouling amounted to antisocial behaviour, and that education and publicity were required to highlight and correct the behaviour.

It was questioned whether the wording was appropriate on the proposed Order, at Schedule 1 para a. that the following land would not be subject to the Order – woodland and heath.  Walkers used footpaths within this type of land and should not be subjected to uncleared dog waste, although it was acknowledged that it would not be possible to enforce clearing on a wider scale over open land.  The officer noted that she could amend the order if Members so wished.

It was proposed and seconded that ‘woodland and heath’ be removed from the schedule of exemptions.  On being voted upon, this was agreed.

RESOLVED that the schedule of exemptions be amended to remove ‘woodland and heath’.

The Order as amended was then moved, seconded and voted upon.

RESOLVED that:

a)    the results of the public consultation be noted; and

b)    the making of the Public Space Protection Order, effective from 5 June 2017, be approved.