Councillor's home pelted with dog poo after urging owners to dispose of mess in own bins

A councillor’s home and car was pelted with dog mess after he suggested dog owners take poo bags home to dispose of in their own bins.

Carl John told a meeting that dog bins were overflowing in East Calder, and asked if they could be emptied more often.

He told the East Livingston and East Calder Local Area Committee: “I’ve had lots of complaints, and I’ve seen it for myself.”

Councillor John told the meeting that he had faced abuse when he suggested that owners take their dog mess home with them.

“I have had threats and I have had dog poo thrown at my house and at my windows and I have had it smeared on my car.”

He said: “We’ve got rid of a lot of the dog bins and we just have the standard black bin, it says you can leave your dog poo here.

“Every month, they’re overflowing and people are beginning to pile poo bags or black bags full of poo bags. It won’t be so bad in the winter, but in the summer, the smell, flies and vermin hanging about isn’t acceptable.”

He added: “I really think if we’re not supplying the old red bins that we used to, we should either have more of the black bins that are multi-useable or just increase the squads of people going round. I think we should really tighten up on that.”

Councillor John has regularly campaigned for more stencilled warnings on pavements to dog walkers to “pick up” after their pets.

Simon Scott, from Operational Services, urged people to report overflowing bins, pointing out that all bins will be on a schedule for regularly emptying.

“The thing to do is, if there’s a particular bin overflowing, is just to report it as it may be an issue with a delay in getting round the schedule or not on schedule. Maybe we could look at reviewing the schedule.”

Regarding the provision of more dog bins he said a “finite level of investment” governed how many bins could be installed.