Shildon Town Council is set to enforce a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) for dog control after councillors agreed to recommendations of the Town Clerk in a report which went before the town council at its latest meeting on Monday 10th April.
The PSPO is set to be adopted across County Durham after overwhelming support in a public consultation last year.
Over eighty percent of participants agreed that implementation of the Order would help create safe and welcoming play areas, reduce the number of stray dogs, enable authorised officers to request dogs are put on leads when necessary and tackle dog fouling issues.
Consequently, it will be an offence under the Order to allow a dog to foul without picking it up, to allow a dog to stray, to fail to put a dog on a lead when asked to do so by an authorised person and to take dogs into designated fenced off play areas.
There will be a Fixed Penalty Notice of £100 for breaching any aspect of the PSPO. However, the fine is reduced to £60 if paid within ten days but can increase up to £1,000 if failure to pay results in a prosecution.
The report recommended that the town council include the play areas in Hackworth Park as part of the Order, although the larger children’s play area will need to be fenced off to conform to the regulations.
Members of town council staff are set to be trained to issue Fixed Penalty Notices on behalf of Durham County Council within the park and on town council land, and will carry out these duties alongside their regular roles.
However, it has also been accepted that the town council’s direct workforce could not realistically cover other areas of Shildon, which will be covered by DCC wardens.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
