Questions have been asked at City Hall about the effectiveness of the FIDO dog fouling removal vehicle as Belfast councillors have noted spikes of dog fouling across the city.
Sinn Féin Councillor for the Court area Claire Canavan has asked for a review into the FIDO vehicle, and has 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.
Councillor Canavan said at the March meeting of Belfast City Council ’s People and Communities Committee: “We have a FIDO machine in each quarter of the city, and I would propose we carry out a review into their effectiveness.
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“It is my understanding that there are issues with them breaking down a lot. I know the one in West Belfast certainly does - it is more off the road than it is on the road. And to look at - even the size of them, I really do wonder how they are fit for purpose. I don’t see how they get along many of the pavements in our city.
“We are here a lot of the time talking about parking issues in the streets. A lot of the streets in the area I represent, there is no way one of those machines would get down them.
“Lamp posts, telegraph poles, bins (are in the way), and I have started to wonder what benefit they actually do have. I don’t know how much they cost, but that has to be looked at, also the cost to repair them if they are breaking down a lot.”
She said: “If you have a car that is always breaking down, and it keeps breaking down, you would bring it straight back to the dealership. So I think we need to tease out those issues.
“In the area I represent (Court), we see FIDO once a month - again I question how effective that would be.
“It is my understanding in my area that there is a supervisor, with four members of staff, and that would go from Divis Tower, right up to Kennedy Street, which is the Royal from the Grosvenor Bridge right up to Cupar Way. That’s picking up the litter and dealing with dog fouling - four people dealing with all of that. I’m wondering if there is a better way to do things.”
She added: “My understanding is that if there was a spike in dog fouling in any particular area, a resource would be put in. Recently there has been a spike in the area I represent, in Springfield, and that has put an immense pressure on our staff. They are not getting an extra resource.”
She urged as part of the review that staff are spoken to and the cleansing team structure is analysed. The committee agreed to her request.
She added: “This is first and foremost the responsibility of dog owners. There should not be someone that goes about and has to pick up dog poo - it is ridiculous. But that unfortunately is where we are.
“It is a minority of irresponsible dog owners who don’t pick up after them. I think it is despicable.”
DUP Councillor for Titanic, Ruth Brooks asked members if they had heard of more reports of dog fouling in the last six months, and said in her area “it felt literally like an epidemic” of dog fouling.
A council officer said: “Members might be surprised at the frequency at which we clean streets in Belfast, or how often we clean them and come back to find the same things on that street. We are there to clean it.
“We are doing a pilot at the moment in North Belfast, where we are looking at a whole range of issues, particularly around machines. But we will never be able to have a single solution around a machine - we will always have (a combination of) machines and staff.
“What we are looking at now is a review of the equipment we are using, because there are health and safety issues for our staff who are lifting it, believe it or not. So we are conscious of the issues our staff face.
“So we will talk to the area manager around this, to find out what these issues are that have been raised, particularly the streets and their details. We will come back with a report."
He added: “We look at routes, and how often they are done. Managers are dynamically risk assessing all the time within areas, looking at where to put resources, when hot spots appear.”
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