Local MP Richard Arkless spent some time with the local Community Safety Team last week to find out more about the important work that they do.
The Community Safety Team work in partnership with the Police and other agencies to respond to anti-social behaviour and enforce environmental or other local issues. They work across the region to make communities and individuals feel safe and secure.
The Community Safety Team is responsible for issuing fixed penalty notices for fly tipping, dog fouling and littering. As well as this, community safety officers patrol neighbourhoods around the region to keep vandalism and anti-social behaviour rates low. The Team was formed in 2012 and amalgamated community wardens, car park inspectors and the anti-social behaviour teams into one large team.
One of the most inescapable forms of anti-social behaviour that the officers have to deal with is dog fouling and Richard was keen to discuss the issue with them.
Commenting, Richard said:
“I get an awful lot of emails about dog fouling from across the region. Apart from being unpleasant and messy, dog poo can have a significant health risk – it is very important that dog owners clean up after their pets.
“The Community Safely Officer told me that in Stranraer, seven out of ten people clean up after their dogs. The officers do not have the power to force dog owners to clean up but they do have the power to issue fines and they start from £80. Wardens can’t act unless they catch someone in the act.”
Richard added:
“Our Community Safety Officers are there to help everybody in the community but to do this, the local community has to help them too. To catch repeat dog fouling offenders, the team relies on information provided by the general public – they need to know where and when it’s happening and if possible who the dog owners are. Without this information they are unable to catch people in the act and issue fines so if you see it happening regularly in the same areas, please let the Community Safety Team know.”
Richard was keen to add that the Community Safety Team work incredibly hard, covering a huge geographical area – 600 square miles. There are 5 full time members and one part time member and overall they have twenty-six distinct responsibilities including anti-social behaviour order enforcement, noise enforcement, littering and dealing with used needles. They also offer a mediation service to help resolve disputes within communities.
“If you need to contact the Community Safety Team to report dog fouling or for any other reason, simply phone 030 33 33 3000 or email [email protected]. It’s easy to get in touch so if you have a problem that they can help with please do not hesitate to contact them.”
