Bradford Council's Dog Warden Service has given out only six fixed penalty dog fouling tickets in a year.

This is in stark contrast to colleagues at the Council's Park Rangers service, who issued 120 tickets in parks and recreation grounds during the same period.

The revelation came after Councillor Howard Middleton (Lib Dem, Bolton) wrote to Bradford Council's head of recreation, Barrie Tinker.

He asked how many fixed penalty notices were given to dog owners who let their pets soil Peel Park, Undercliffe, which is patrolled by park rangers.

The dog wardens are in charge of patrolling grass verges, pavements and public places.

Under the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996 local authorities may issue £25 fixed penalty notices and, if these are unpaid, take dog owners to court, where they could be fined up to £1,000.

Councillor Middleton said: "I was surprised when I learnt about the difference in the figures. I also can't understand why Peel Park, which I believe is the biggest park in Bradford, has only had four penalty tickets since legislation came into use."

Trevor Morris, the housing and environmental protection department's chief officer, said: "Although we have only issued about half-a-dozen fixed penalty notices we have issued over 100 informal cautions.

"The approach outside the parks was slightly less forceful to give dog owners time to get used to the new law and they were given a period of grace."

He said the Policy and Resources Committee agreed on March 16 to take a hard line approach to illegal dog fouling across all of its departments and to use fixed penalty notices.

Councillor Derek Kettlewell, chairman of Bradford Council's Sports and Recreation sub-committee, said the recreation service had taken a very pro-active approach to tackling the problem of dog fouling.

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