Dog Fouling Campaign - What did we do and What was the result?
Portreath Parish Council have identified that there is an issue with Dog Fouling in the parish. In partnership with Portreath Primary School and Gwel an Mor, Cllr Vicki Webb and Jo ran a school assembly, to talk about animals, how we care for them and their environment. This led the assembly onto the subject of Dog Mess and the impact it has on our environment and our wildlife. The children were keen to be involved and so we set up a competition of designing a poster that could be used in the parish, to make people think twice and to encourage people to pick up their dog/s mess.
Thank you to Feadon Farm, Gwel an Mor for your support on this project.
Whilst the children were busy designing their posters. The Chairman of the Parish Council, Ian Stewart, took on the smelly job of counting, recording and picking up all the dog poo found in two identified hot spots - Penberthy Road (nr the Garage) and at the Harbour triangle patch of grass. Ian counted these for 2 weeks.
We had an overwhelming response for the poster competition, with 37 poster entries. The panel: Portreath Parish Council; Love Portreath CAN; Portreath Primary School & Gwel an Mor, had the very difficult decision of deciding on the winner, the posters really were amazing!
The Winner was announced on the 10 February, at the school assembly. Viola, aged 10, was awarded a certificate and her poster in a frame - congratulations Viola!
Thank you to Portreath Primary School for supporting us with this project.
The winning poster was printed onto metal signs, which were then put up in the two identified 'hot spot' locations. These posters were also sent to local businesses to put up in their windows/premises should they wish.
Ian continued to count the dog mess in these two areas for another 2 weeks and we are pleased to announce that the signs made a huge difference! The dog mess in the hot spot area of Penberthy Road, reduced by 67% and the dog mess at the Harbour triangle, reduced by 85%
We are really pleased with the outcome of our first Campaign against dog fouling in Portreath Parish and we hope to run another campaign soon!
If anyone wishes to volunteer and help the parish council with this project, please contact Cllr Vicki Webb at vickiwebb.ppc@gmail.com or the Parish Clerk at portreathparishcouncil@gmail.com.