Dogs foul play on team pitch

Dog-owners have been criticised after a football team manager had to clear piles of dog mess from a pitch before a match could be played on Sunday.

Mr Paul Samuels (54) of Grange Road, Newark, the chairman of BG Hawtonville, said the mess on the Devon Park pitch in Newark was disgusting.

A letter of complaint has been sent to Newark and Sherwood District Council, which owns the park.

Mr Stuart Kettleborough, the manager of BG Hawtonville Reserves, half-filled a carrier bag with dog mess collected from the pitch.

Kick-off was delayed by about 30 minutes while the clean-up was under way.

Mr Samuels said it would have been unsafe for players to use the pitch in the condition they found it.

“The council has put bins for the dog owners to use but some just let their dogs run loose and don’t clear up after them,” he said.

Mr Samuels said if the problem continued they would not use the pitch.

The district council’s head of housing and environmental services, Mr Andy Statham, said it was disgusting that some dog-owners did not clear up after their pets.

He said a park ranger checked the Devon Park pitches and cleaned up any dog mess he found.

He has now been told to pay particular attention to the area.

“Although the park is closed to vehicles overnight, it is still accessible to pedestrians 24 hours a day, including times when a park ranger is not on site,” said Mr Statham.

“The majority of dog walkers are responsible but some choose to allow their pets to roam unsupervised without clearing up.”

He said that if they were given information about suspected culprits, officers would confront them and ask them to clear up the dog mess.

Last year three fixed penalty notices were issued in Newark and Sherwood for dog fouling under the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996.

None has been issued for dog fouling under new laws that allow council staff to issue on-the-spot fines of £75.

The council’s environment manager, Mr Alan Batty, said if the council had a cluster of complaints they would increase patrols in that area.