Dog fouling is the top concern in the area

Members of Annandale and Eskdale Area Committee, who met on Wednesday, heard that townspeople and villagers in all three electoral wards rate it higher than litter/rubbish and vehicle nuisance grievances.
And senior community safety officer Davy Russell, who presented a report at the meeting, outlined it is the area to which most staff are focused.
He said: “Dog fouling is the number one priority for our service and it’s the majority of complaints I receive. The main problem is we have to witness the incident happening before we can issue a fine.
“Our high visibility presence is currently being reviewed at the moment and if we can reduce the number of these patrols we may be able to up the number of dog fouling tickets we can issue.”
He added: “Fly tipping is also a problem but as we have the M74 and A75 passing through the area it’s one of the more difficult ones to deal with as we need to find evidence to take us to the offender.”
Annandale East and Eskdale councillor Archie Dryburgh praised the efforts of the team, particularly in their fight against dog dirt.
He said: “The community safety team are doing the right thing by putting resources into dog fouling across Annandale and Eskdale.
“All the community councils I attend raise the same complaints about dog fouling so it’s right we should focus our efforts on that particular area.”
Meanwhile, Mr Russell reported there had been a decrease of 198 community safety incidents in Annandale and Eskdale for the 2014/15 reporting period, and that 92 per cent of respondents were highly satisfied with their response.
But domestic noise complaints rose from 97 to 104 and abandoned vehicles were up a staggering 20 incidents to 23. The number of syringes uplifted also rose from two to seven.
Litter complaints fell from 28 to 25 and fly tipping complaints also fell by 72 to 125.