School pupils' dog-fouling poster designs to be displayed around Wick
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Posters designed by local schoolchildren are to be placed around Wick in a new bid to tackle dog-fouling.
The initiative is being led by members of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council who ran a design competition with the town's two primaries.
The winning entries – using different messages to urge dog owners to take responsibility for cleaning up after their pets – are being turned into eye-catching posters which will be appearing at prominent locations.
The issue of dog-fouling was highlighted at a community council meeting earlier this year.
“There was a marked improvement afterwards but we've noticed recently that it has started to slip back," community councillor Allan Bruce said.
"We're going to start reinforcing it again by putting the posters up around the town.”
The poster competition winners were Erna Thain (P5 Green, Noss Primary School), Lilly More (P4, Newton Park), Hollie Sinclair (P5/6, Newton Park) and Teagan Kelly (P7J, Newton Park).
Tesco Wick community champion Karen Center donated games and arts materials, while the community council gave both schools a selection of arts, crafts and games equipment.
Mr Bruce said: “It was a great effort from everybody. It was difficult picking winners.”
He is one of Wick's many responsible dog owners but he says some people are continuing to be anti-social by failing to clean up.
“It's horrible, especially just now with all the leaves around the town and with the darker mornings and evenings," Mr Bruce said. "It's irresponsible of the owners.”
He added: “If anybody in the town knows of any really problematic areas we would ask them to get in touch with the community council secretary.”
The email address is secretary@wickcommunitycouncil.com
At the community council's February meeting, chairperson Joanna Coghill complained that pavements throughout Wick were "absolutely filthy". She said at that time: “There is not one street in this town that hasn’t got a lump of dog poo on it."
At a subsequent meeting, Highland Council's assistant community works officer Jodie Wilson, whose role includes the duties of dog warden for the Caithness area, said: “It’s a huge problem across the whole county, it’s not just Wick."
Mrs Coghill felt that dog-fouling had increased significantly during the pandemic.
