Dog mess plea in Rasen field

​The issue came to a head over the Christmas period, when bins on the town council-controlled De Aston Field became full, yet people continued to add more, meaning they overflowed.

Speaking at this month’s town council meeting, Coun Neil Taylor said: “It is an embarrassment to this town the way people fill the bins, especially dog poop bags hanging out of the bins.

“It is a disgrace, the dog owners really need to take responsibility and take their stuff home. If I saw a bin full and I had litter in my pocket I would take it home.

“It appalls me to go around the town and see great piles of excreta hanging out of bins.

“It is just unacceptable behaviour by dog owners. I appreciate it is a minority [of dog owners], but it is an embarrassment to the town and I think we really must make the point.”

Coun Stephen Bunney, who also serves as a district and county councillor, explained the county-wide policy on dog waste is that if a red dog waste bin is full, the litter bin can be used.

He said: “We are not taking red bins away, but the message is that if they are full, whether it is right or wrong, to put it [dog waste] in the black bin and they will be emptied on a regular basis, two or three times a week.

“The issue is the ones on our field, which we have to empty.”

​Speaking about the situation over the Christmas period, Coun Bunney said: “We do actually give our staff holidays and I think it is something we as a council must note going forward.

"For 10 days, as the bins in the town’s parks are emptied by town council employees, we had given them all holiday and we hadn’t made arrangements for those [bins] to be done.”

However, acknowledging the specific holiday issue, Coun Taylor still felt more needed to be done, as he felt allowing dog waste to be put into regular waste bins was ‘unacceptable’.

He said: “I think we should make it that the bins in our park are for litter and not dog poo.”

A suggestion from Coun Jesse Adekoya was to increase signage to help deal with the issue and it was agreed, on De Aston Field, these would ask residents to only use red bins for dog waste.