Sunday, March 23, 2008

To Mean to Buy 10 Dog Bins

TOO MEAN TO BUY 10 DOG BINS

I spoke with anger that the Council should be even having to discuss whether or not they should buy 10 more dog bins to be placed around the Borough.

How can we as Councillors even think about not getting 10 additional bins and cleaning them – as a Council we spend money in many ways, and I realise that we are looking closely at expenditure during this period of rate setting but this is foolish savings. We advertise in our Borough Magazine, in newspapers on the back of buses to clean up when a dog has fouled and many responsible dog owners do, but there is no doubt, the evidence is very clear in our streets, that many still do not. If we are to encourage the cleaning up after dogs – and then say ‘no’ we are not providing bins, this is a very mixed message.

Dog fouling is probably one of the issues raised more often than not on the door step to any politician and we all during electing time vow to make sure this issue is fully addressed and now some Councillors have a decision not to buy 10 dog bins costing £4500 with a further £7280 to clean them. This is a small amount within the council budget, but to me the most surprising element of the debate was that in the report presented to Councillors this evening it stated “The demand for the proposed 10 additional bins reflects the continuing public demand placed on councillors and officers for more bins, especially in housing estates where they are currently lacking”. This I would have thought is a fairly clear message and I know that I have requested 2 of the bins on request from my constituents.

I find the decision made not to purchase these 10 bins just amazing and foolish and I cannot quite work out why so many councillors were against this particularly when the report clearly stated the bins were needed.