A FORMER Mayor of Wellington has slammed irresponsible dog owners for failing to pick up the mess left behind by their pets.

Cllr Mark Lithgow, speaking at Wellington Town Council’s environment committee meeting on May 22, spoke about a recent front page headline in the Wellington Weekly News about ongoing dog poo problems.

“It really does annoy me that people are not more responsible about it,” he said. “It’s virtually impossible to address the problem regardless of how many wardens you have out on the streets.”

Cllr Lithgow added: “I don’t want to get on a rant about it, but the problems are getting worse.

“Top of the list of annoyance for me about this is when dog owners do actually pick up the mess and put it in a bag, but they then throw the bag into a tree or bush.”

Cllr Lithgow’s comments came after councillors had looked at the results of a survey the council had carried about plans for the development of the Green Corridor.

Some people who took part in the survey said that certain areas of the Green Corridor in Wellington needed to be dog free zones.

“There is a need to educate people on the impact their pets have on wildlife and their habitats - how to be a responsible dog walker,” said one person.

Another suggested that areas of the Green Corridor needed to be completely “human free” to allow wildlife to flourish naturally.

“Initially I suggested some of the green corridor to be off limits to people due to 'the few' that disrespect the green areas with litter dropping and dog owners who refuse to pick up after their dogs,” said the survey respondent.

“We have some amazing wildlife making these areas their habitat - otters, water voles, birds of prey, kingfishers, herons, egret to name a few and it hugely saddens me to see the negative impact humans often make with their carelessness, disrespect and ignorance.”

The problem of dog mess has also cropped up in an ongoing survey being carried out by the town council about the open spaces in Wellington.