A SENIOR Labour councillor has accused Monmouthshire County Council of failing to care about its residents.

Citing a Freedom of Information Act (FOI), Councillor Dimitri Batrouni has lashed out at council Conservatives, lead by Cllr Peter Fox, for failing to enforce laws against littering and dog fouling.

Cllr Batrouni’s findings highlight how there has been just one Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) given for littering, and only one fine has been issued because of dog fouling in more than three years.

Cllr Batrouni said: “The Tory cabinet do not care about the bread and butter issues residents care about. Residents want to live in clean environments and to walk on pavements without fear of stepping on something nasty. Dog fouling, in particular, is a concern many residents raise with me, but there is a limit to what you can do if the Tory controlling group won’t take it seriously.

“While the vast majority of dog owners are responsible, there are a few who are not. A clear message needs to be sent out that letting your dog foul on pavements without picking it up is unacceptable. The Tories are failing to send that message with a record of one prosecution in three years and are letting down responsible dog owners and non-dog owners alike.”

Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in Monmouthshire, Cllr Peter Fox has responded: “Of course I as council leader and my colleagues, as with all councillors and residents, are frustrated by the minority of our residents who do not clean up after their dogs; we deplore this, there is no excuse. We have roughly 140 complaints a year about this issue. Unfortunately during this difficult time the council has not got the resources to employ specific officers to patrol the county so we are trying different approaches instead. We have an agreement with the police and have issued most PCSOs with fixed penalty notice (FPN) books on our behalf, however feedback suggests that most dog fouling is committed out of working hours, either early morning, or later in the evening.

“The Environmental Health and Waste teams have been working with community councils to put in place local initiatives such as ’Give Dog Fouling the Red Card’ to help raise awareness within their communities. I believe there are currently 12 Community Councils signed up to this particular scheme and they are provided with guidance and resources such as spray paint, dog bags and signs to help take the scheme forward. However if a member of the public reports individual offenders environment officers will follow up and if there is robust evidence a FPN of £75 will be served.

“As I have mentioned, we’re in difficult times and due to huge levels of cuts imposed on us by the Labour Welsh Government we will have to find further savings of £7 million pounds next year and we will have to make many difficult decisions. I only hope that for once Councillor Batrouni and his Labour Party colleagues will stop playing politics and actually work with us to help find solutions to the problems we face in all areas of council business instead of continuously whinging and trying to score political points."