Fylde Council drops beach dog ban enforcers after 'reputation-damaging' complaints

Specialists District Enforcement were announced in the summer as the company which would ‘police’ the streets and beach areas as the council looked to clean up Fylde.

Uniformed enforcement officers handed out £100 fixed penalty notices for offences such as littering and dog fouling – but also for the tourist season rule of dogs not being allowed on a section of St Annes beach without a lead, and it was that which has sparked the problem and the council’s decision to end District Enforcement’s 12-month trial six months early.

Many dog owners, a considerable number of them visitors to the area, have complained to the council about the ‘over exuberance’ of the enforcement officers in handing out fines for the exclusion offence.

Coun Roger Small (inset), chairman of the council’s operational management committee, said: “The enforcement procedure as introduced in July was damaging our reputation and we are taking it back ‘in house’.

“District Enforcement have been advised our decision and their involvement in Fylde is likely to finish by the end of the year.”

Ian Roberts, chairman of the Friends of St Annes Promenade Gardens, who said he had received scores of complaints from fellow dog-owning residents, said: “This is is good news. I have engaged with a number of local people, dog owners, who have an interest in this subject and unfailingly they have had no problem with Fylde Council – until this.

“I just hope now all outstanding cases will be dropped and imposed fines rescinded. It would be disgusting and heartless not to, in my opinion, given the stresses everyone is facing at the moment.”

Fylde Council said a total of 416 fixed penalty notices for breaching the dog exclusion zone rule – which runs from Good Friday to September 30 – were handed out from July 1.

District Enforcement was contacted for comment.