Belfast City Hall has heard that the current system to fight dog fouling problems is “broken” after the council only managed ten fines in the past year.
At the April meeting of the full council on Tuesday (April 1), elected representatives from all parties voiced their ire after DUP Councillor Ruth Brooks revealed the enforcement figures on dog fouling.
She told the chamber: “The (council) People and Communities Committee has had a workshop, we have looked at a range of mechanisms to deal with the inordinate number of complaints about dog fouling in the city. Councillor Flynn and myself proposed and introduced dedicated dog waste bins that can be attached to lampposts specifically for areas where the standard Belfast bins won’t fit.
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“We’ve had lengthy discussions in committees on whether increasing fines would make any meaningful difference, and yet week after week I am contacted by residents, and even responsible dog owners, who are asking for one thing, and that is enforcement.
“I want to put on record my thanks to the street cleansing team in East Belfast, the team is absolutely fantastic, and they go above and beyond, when we flag up areas for clean-up. But that is the reactive side of the system.
“When it comes to proactive enforcement, the system is currently broken. I submitted a freedom of information request, asking for the number of fixed penalty notices issued for dog fouling across the four quadrants of the city, and the results were grim, but not surprising. In the 2023-24 financial year just seven fines were issued in this city, four in East Belfast, two in North Belfast, one in South Belfast, and none in West Belfast.
“Last year, the 2024-25 financial year, up to February 1, a total of just three fines were issued - two in South Belfast, one in West Belfast, none in North and East Belfast. So the entire time I have been elected to this council, just 10 fines have been issued for dog fouling in this entire city.”
She told councillors the Walkway Community Centre in her District Electoral Area had to cancel children playing in the Linear Park last summer because of the volume of dog fouling.
She said: “They also had to cancel their fun day, because when DfI finally came out to do their one grass cut of the year, the smell from the disturbed dog poo was likened to slurry spreading on a farm - it was horrendous.
“As if that isn’t enough, I am being told that irresponsible dog owners are now using the MUGA as an off-lead dog park, with urination and fouling included. So when I asked how many fines had been issued for off-lead council spaces since 2023, I was told none.”
The council has recently spent £25,000 on an advertising campaign to ask responsible dog owners to pick up. Meanwhile just under 1,200 reports of dog fouling have been made to the council’s phone line in the past year.
Councillor Brooks said: “The reality is the system is broken. Our cleansing teams are doing the best that they can, reactively, but the proactive side, the part meant to deter and enforce, is failing.
“And when community members confront offenders are met with abuse and “what are you going to do about it” - then they come and ask us what we are going to do about it. We raise it in committee, and what are the outcomes? Ten fines in this city in two years.
“We need answers, we need to know if our dog wardens are over-stretched, is the XL Bully issue taking up their capacity? Are they focused on animal cruelty cases to the detriment of everyday enforcement? Are the shift patterns working, and do we have enough staff? But clearly, what we are doing now isn’t working, and we need to have a wider conversation.”
Alliance Councillor Jenna Maghie said: “Dog poo bags are one thing. We provide them to our community centres but we don’t tell people they are there - that is an issue.
“We have talked so many times about fines, and I think it is a shame there are so few being given out. But we have to admit it is very difficult to catch people in the act. Fines are just about the amount given out, it is about the threat of them. It is a shame people haven’t agreed with our position that they should probably be higher.” She said that street stencilling messages worked but were not replaced when they wore out.
SDLP Councillor Gary McKeown said: “Increasing the fine to the maximum allowed under the legislation sends out a very strong signal from this council that we do take this as an important issue. By keeping them at a lower level it sends out the signal we don’t really take it that seriously.”
He asked for a “fundamental review” involving speaking to council staff and looking at other councils for successful enforcement practice.
Last month Sinn Féin Councillor for the Court area Claire Canavan successfully proposed a review into the FIDO vehicle, and questioned its effectiveness in the face of a spike in dog fouling in the Springfield Road area in West Belfast. The review will also look into cleansing team structures across the city.
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