Blitz on dog owners who fail to clean up

PARTNERSHIP members backed tough action to crack down on a plague of dog-fouling which has made Royton one of the worst areas in the borough for the unpleasant problem.

Councillors pledged £7,000 to pay for early morning, evening and weekend patrols by plain-clothes enforcers to catch owners who fail to pick up their dog’s mess.

The culprits will face an £80 spot fine.

Owners could also face a fine when their pets are out on their own. Unaccompanied dogs which are spotted fouling could be followed back to their owners’ homes, and fines handed out to the owners.

Councillor Howard Sykes thought that this did not go far enough and said that offending owners should also be named and shamed. He spoke out against a plea for £7,500 to be spent on educating dog owners to clear up after their pets, which included providing plastic bags and handing out information from a special dog pod at carnivals and other public events.

He said: “I am a responsible dog owner.

“I clear up after my dog, and so do 95 per cent of other dog-owners.

“Those who don’t clear up after their dogs don’t care, and trying to educate them will do no good.

“We should take no prisoners. The money should be spent on enforcement.

“Let’s do some people and name and shame them then perhaps others who don’t care will take some notice.”

Members agreed to double the £3,500 requested by Oldham’s enforcement team to help pay for officers to patrol hot-spots at the times of day when people take their dogs out.

They also agreed to spend £1,500 on education materials to hand out to make people good witnesses so those who flout the law can be brought to task.

Samantha Jackson, acting principal environmental health officer for public health, said eight fixed penalties were issued across the borough last year for dog-fouling. She wants all district partnerships to contribute almost £11,000 each to help to pay for a crack down on dog-fouling in their areas.




Costs blow for health centre



RESIDENTS were dealt a body blow when it was revealed that the long-awaited Shaw and Crompton Health Centre would not go ahead as planned.



Colin Scales, director of commissioning for NHS Oldham, said the original scheme was now unaffordable, and revised options would be ready to unveil over the next few weeks.

He said the recession had put paid to the plans he had outlined at a meeting of the district partnership 12 months ago, saying: “The people of Shaw and Crompton have waited a very long time for their health centre to be developed.”

He said NHS Oldham was “absolutely committed” to making sure residents had access to high-quality health services, but said: “Unfortunately the proposal we put together, given the new financial restrictions particularly in relation to capital developments, is now completely unaffordable.”

Mr Scales said it was now in the process of redesigning the plans, which included looking at the council, private and public sector, and he expected to be able to bring more detailed proposals to a future Shaw and Crompton PACT meeting.

Pressed for a date, he said: “We should be able to provide some options which are affordable certainly before the end of the summer.”




Price of memorial repairs questioned



PLANS to spend thousands of pounds on repairs to Shaw’s Boer War Memorial hit a barrier when it was suggested the money could be better spent on projects to benefit the community.



Sgt Helen Osmond, from the Royton and Shaw policing team, asked for a breakdown of the costs after hearing almost £41,000 had been set aside for the work and to move a statue in the memorial garden.

She said: “This is a lot of money in a recession when we have other issues such as dog-fouling, crime and anti-social behaviour to deal with, and maybe there should be some public consultation before the money is spent.”

She suggested the Payback to the Community scheme, in which people convicted of minor crimes carry out unpaid tasks, could be used to carry out the work.

But Councillor Howard Sykes said there were hoops to be jumped through and money which had to be paid out when it came to doing specialist work on war memorials.

Councillors agreed to get a breakdown of the costs before deciding if the scheme would go ahead.