LESS than half of all dog fouling fines issued by the city council are being paid — including 32 outstanding notices in the past year alone.
Figures provided to the Tele reveal that 213 fixed penalty notices have been issued to dog owners in Dundee since April 2013.
But only 93 of these have been settled up with the council and 20 were cancelled.
Since the start of 2015, there have been 67 fines given out, but less than half have been paid. A total of 35 of the fixed penalty notices in the past three years were sent to the Sheriffs Office for debt recovery.
The council was forced to write off eight of the fixed penalty notices as “unable to recover”, but four more offenders had their wages stopped and one was provided with a pay plan.
Two full-time animal control officers are employed at the council but 14 other officers are authorised to issue fixed penalty notices.
Alan Maich, chairman of the Friends of Stobsmuir Park, said: “That doesn’t sound like many people for a whole city, I think they could have more staff.
“They need to look at how other places handle it and get smarter about it — maybe train up the park wardens, as they’re there already.
“I don’t know if that would be possible with their contracts, though.
“It really affects a lot of people. Even if it is a low level issue, they need to look after it.”
A Dundee City Council spokesman said: “There are a number of initiatives in place to help tackle dog fouling across the city.
“The council has recently strengthened its enforcement action against dog fouling offences by increasing the number of staff trained and authorised to issue fixed penalty notices.
“More than 1,300 dog waste bins are also located across the city.
“There should be no excuse for leaving dog mess on the streets, parks and beaches.
“The council currently issues around four million free dog bags a year which are available from local authority offices as well as many other outlets throughout the city.”