Magistrates have been rapped for cutting the fines for dog fouling to as low as £5.
Courts have been accused of undermining council deterrents by reducing £60 fixed penalty notice fines because owners can’t afford them.
Great Harwood councillor Gareth Molineux said Hyndburn council prosecutions require backing from magistrates to provide a deterrent.
Speaking at an area council meeting last week, he said: “We spend a substantial amount of money taking them to court for a magistrate to find them guilty and then lower the fine to a measly £15 or even £5 and then allow the person who committed the offence to pay it on a monthly payment scheme.
“We are quite happy to prosecute all day long but if we don’t have the magistrates’ support then we are costing taxpayers money and all we are doing is paying to take them to court to let them off with a lighter fine.”
Coun Molineux said the law surrounding dog fouling also makes it very difficult to prosecute offenders.
He said: “The ones we have issued are when the dog warden has gone out, usually to repeat offenders, and caught them in the act. Some have paid, some haven’t paid and they turn up in court and the judge fines them, but they say they can’t pay and it is lowered.
“That’s what we are up against.”
Ian Wilkinson, chair of Friends of Memorial Park in Great Harwood, said dog fouling in the area has become a significant problem.
He told the meeting: “I see people near the park every single day, sometimes the same people, who purposely don’t pick up after their dog.
“They come out with no bags, there is no deterrent to pick it up and I think it’s appalling.
“You need to make an example of a few people and it’s the same with litter dropping.
“You go to Manchester and drop a cigarette and it’s £50. We are just lax.”
HM?Court Service declined to comment.
