Pet owners welcome £100 fines for 'nuisance' dogs

Pet owners have welcomed a district council's new measures to clamp down on "nuisance" dogs.

Tendring District Council in Essex introduced a district-wide public spaces protection order (PSPO) on Thursday, targeting dog fouling and problematic dogs off leads.

It allows authorised council officers to issue fines of £100 to dog owners who do not put their pet on a lead when asked to do so or pick up their dog's poo.

Mike Bush, the councillor responsible for environment, said it would give the council a better chance to deal with "irresponsible owners".

"The majority of dog owners clean up after their dog and ensure their pet is on a lead in public areas if it cannot be controlled by command, but there is a small minority of owners who do not," said independent councillor Mr Bush.

Richard Cummings, from Frating, said if he saw an unruly dog he would want it to be put on a lead, but that most dogs he had encountered with his one-year-old dachshund Luna "haven't been a problem at all".

"I don't think you would go down very well if you had an unruly dog, to be honest," the 50-year-old said. "I think it would be frowned upon quite a lot."

Sandra and Colin Crittenden, from Little Bentley, thought the new measures were "probably a good idea".

"If you've got a dog and it's somewhere that it needs to be on a lead, that's fine, but if it's somewhere where you could run a dog like next to the beach on the headland or something, then I think they should be allowed to be off the lead there," Mrs Crittenden, 66, said while walking her 12-week-old puppy Bentley.

Christine Talbot, 64, from Little Clacton, continued: "There are other dogs that come up that are aggressive and you think 'oh god, there should be a muzzle or it should be on a lead' which is a bit scary for people, so I do understand that, but then can people afford another £100 fine?"

Katie Courts, whose cat Billie was attacked by four off-lead dogs near her home in Dovercourt in May, thought the new powers were "a really good idea".

"Some dogs are really well trained but there are definitely other dogs that don't seem to be fully under the control of the owner," the 48-year-old added.

The PSPO covers all public land in the Tendring district.

Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.