New attempt to tackle dog-fouling in Staxigoe area as poo-bag dispensers are installed
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Community-led efforts to tackle dog-fouling in and around Staxigoe have been stepped up with home-made poo-bag dispensers being installed at popular walking routes.
Six dispensers have been created from two-litre juice bottles, each filled with bags for dog owners to take, and put in place at various locations by members of Staxigoe, Papigoe and Noss Resilience Group.
It follows on from a recent clean-up by local residents Pam Jack and Wendy Sutherland, who collected 14.1 kilograms of dog waste between the end of Elzy Road and a point beyond the local war memorial.
Mrs Jack had the idea of providing poo-bag dispensers and set about the task of making them.
Pat Ramsay, a resilience group volunteer and a member of Sinclair's Bay Community Council, said the aim was to make the area better for everyone.
She said: "It's about being positive and saying 'come on, folks, we can make the community better, we can make it a nicer place to walk' – but 14.1 kilos of dog poo in a short distance is absolutely ridiculous.
"It's just about responsibility. It's very much a topic of conversation in the village, and all over.
“The dispensers are home-made and very basic – a good use of recycling fizzy juice bottles.
"We put a wee sticker on them saying Sinclair's Bay Community Council and they are stuck up by a bit of luminous duct tape, so you can't miss them.
“If we don't resolve the problem that way, goodness knows what we do.”
If and when the bags are used up, the dispensers will be replenished.
Mrs Ramsay added that issues with dog mess in the area had been highlighted last month in the resilience group's newsletter.
She said: “Every person from Noss to Papigoe got the newsletter and there was a little plea in there saying 'let's do something about it'.”
Last week Mrs Ramsay praised the public-spirited efforts of Pam Jack and Wendy Sutherland following their clean-up initiative.
“It’s so frustrating," Mrs Ramsay said at the time. "There is no need for it when there are bins. Seeing lumps of dog waste at the side of the verge is just awful.”
A Highland Council spokesperson pointed out dog-fouling can be reported using an online form on the council’s website.
