Campaign against Dog Poo on the Beach

Back in 2015, Visit Cleveleys teamed up with Rossall Beach Residents & Community Group in the fight against dog poo. Children at Northfold and Manor Beach primary schools was enlisted in the Campaign against Dog Poo on the Beach to help to stamp it out!

Why there’s a Campaign against Dog Poo on the Beach

Everyone knows that it’s an owners responsibility to clean up after their dog. All dog owners should carry suitable equipment to do so – dog bags, tissues if necessary etc. Sadly, although the majority of people are responsible and clear up after their dogs, some owners think that they are exempt. If they can get away with not picking up, they will. There’s all kinds of excuses and dodges – the cover of darkness, a quiet beach, the camouflage of pebbles, ‘I didn’t see it’ and many others.

It’s worth remembering that these protocols and laws don’t just apply here at Cleveleys, they’re rules all over the UK. Wherever your dog walks, clear up after it AND THEN DISPOSE PROPERLY OF THE BAG! It’s unpleasant and unhygienic – to people, other dogs and wildlife. Bagging it and chucking the bag is worse!

If your dog does it’s business in an area with a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) and you don’t clear it up, you could receive an on-the-spot fine.

• Find all the information here about taking dogs on beaches in Cleveleys
• Would you like to join a Cleveleys beach clean? More information here
• Check out Cleveleys weather before you visit

The Problems at Cleveleys Beach

The shingle beach at the northern end of Cleveleys seafront is dry for most of the year, so it’s a popular haunt for dog walkers who use it all year round.

It’s taken years of education and several campaigns against dog poo on the beach to made a difference. The current cleanliness of the beach hasn’t happened overnight. Previously, the beach was constantly littered from end to end with piles of dog faeces. Hidden in the pebbles and not obvious to beach goers, it made a walk on the beach into a smelly obstacle course. Not pleasant at all.

Mini Campaigners

So back in 2015 the Rossall Beach Group and Visit Cleveleys enlisted the help of the two local primary schools. The children set to work, making posters to help in the fight against dog fouling – and they came up with some very direct and effective messages!

During Eco Week the event students at Manor Beach and Northfold schools drew some superb posters. Made into signs by the Rossall Beach Group, they were fastened along the low sea wall against the beach.

It’s an owners responsibility to clean dog poo up wherever it falls. It’s not only revolting, it can be dangerous – carrying a disease which can make people go blind, and others which can cause unvaccinated dogs to die. It also contributes to the sea water failing the tests for bathing water quality. Plus which, on shingle beaches like Cleveleys it blends in with the pebbles, so the next thing you know you’ve stood in it!

Well done kids, your posters were superb and did help to do the trick!

Carrying out a Dog Poo Audit!

Like we said, the campaign to keep Cleveleys beach clear of dog excrement has been a long, ongoing battle. There have been annual campaigns, messaging and pleas to the public to be responsible and pick it up.

It was especially bad in 2015/16 so the Rossall Beach Group stepped in again, this time with some shock tactics. It’s one thing saying there’s a lot of dog muck – it’s another to substantiate the claim with numbers. So armed with a roll of snappy bags and a little seaside spade, they went off to collect and count!

Dog Poo Audit 1

The first count took place at the regular community beach clean on a sunny 15 February 2016. Working our way along Rossall Beach from the Five Bar Gate to the end of Thornton Gate, a distance of 40 yards (or 0.02 of a mile… ie not very far). In this one instance we collected over 70 separate deposits of dog poo. All stranded high and dry on the pebbly beach, waiting for someone to stand in them.

And a really funny anecdote…

While doing this exercise, a John Lewis plastic courier bag was used as the global repository of snappy bags, left on the footpath near to the access steps. While volunteers were on the beach flicking dog muck into little bags, the larger bag was left unattended. Hilariously, someone took it – presumably expecting to find something worth having inside. If only we could have seen their faces when they found out what was inside!

Dog Poo Audit 2

It could be argued that the first incredible quantity had collected over a longer period of time. As it can take around nine weeks for dog poo to fully break down (in ideal conditions – up to a year when it’s colder) this could have been up to three months worth of accumulation.

So as a control measure, after publicising the results, the survey was repeated a month later, at the next community beach clean on 14 March in 2016. This time, a whopping 64 separate piles of dog poo were collected, from the same area between the Five Bar Gate and the end of Thornton Gate.

As all the excrement had been removed a month earlier, the group now knew that all of the new piles had been left there in the previous 4 weeks. Shocking.

However, it did seem to do the trick. Publicising the results widely helped, shaming perpetrators into picking up. It also spurred the local authority on to carry out patrols and issue fines to offenders. Touch wood, the situation hasn’t been anywhere as near as bad since this episode!