Car park at popular woodland closed due to dog mess causing a ‘health hazard’

The car park at Ostler's Plantation near Woodhall Spa has been temporarily closed and specialists called in to clean it up due to "irresponsible" dog fouling.The car park at Ostler's Plantation near Woodhall Spa has been temporarily closed and specialists called in to clean it up due to "irresponsible" dog fouling.
The car park at Ostler's Plantation near Woodhall Spa has been temporarily closed and specialists called in to clean it up due to "irresponsible" dog fouling.
Owners have been forced to temporarily close and clean up a car park in a popular woodland site as they say the amount of dog mess being left there is becoming a health hazard.

Officials at Forestry England say they have had to temporarily close the car park at Ostler's Plantation, near Woodhall Spa, because “a few irresponsible dog owners” have created “an awful health hazard” in the woodland by not taking their pet's waste away.

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A spokesman for the organisation explained: “We have had to appoint specialist contractors to come and remove their dogs' waste. This isn't something we are able to do regularly so if the problem occurs again then we may have to consider closing on a permanent basis."

They added: "The best way to keep the forest clean is for visitors to deal with any waste items they bring to the forest. Simply carry it with them until they see a bin, which might be when they get home. This way the forest will stay a beautiful place to visit and for wildlife to flourish."

Forestry England have ruled out installing and maintaining bins in the woodland as inappropriate as they can be vandalised or overflow before they can be emptied, harming wildlife.

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They added: “Not everybody uses them, meaning they often don’t resolve the problem they were put there for. They also cost more than you might think to maintain – which means they aren’t always the best use of our limited resources.

"It costs millions of pounds to manage the nation’s forests. And we currently have to generate about 90 per cent of our own funding.”

As a result they said they have to carefully consider the options for facilities at each of the sites they manage.

"For this reason, at the moment we aren't able to provide dog waste bins or repeated waste collections at a site that doesn’t generate any funding."

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