Residents resorted to emptying overflowing dog poo bins across Bedford say councillors

Dog waste bins have been spotted overflowing with poo in Brickhill, Clapham, De Parys, Kempston, Riverfield, Wixams and Wootton, and some residents have even resorted to emptying the bins themselves.

The problem has gone on for months and Liberal Democrat Councillors raised this at the Council’s Executive (Wednesday October 16).

During the meeting, Cllr Vann, leader of Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats, said: “It is simply unacceptable that poo is piling up near walking routes to school , and is not being collected or dealt with. What has gone wrong? We need answers and the Conservatives need to get a grip of the problem.”

Cllr Headley added: “I have been a councillor for 30 years. I have never seen the situation this bad. Dog walkers want to do the right thing and dispose of dog waste responsibly. This is a systematic failure. It isn’t just one odd bin that needs sorting out, it is clear that the entire collection process has collapsed. Even more worrying, was that the Conservative Portfolio Holder didn’t seem to be aware of the scale of the problem.”

In response to the issue, Cllr James Weir, portfolio holder for environment, said: “As a dog owner dog and walker for last 26 years in Bedford, I’d quite often come across full poo bins and I’d report them and hopefully they’d soon be emptied.

“We do have a process and regular collection cycle as more and more developments and more people and dogs are added, we do need to check if we have enough bins allocated to developments.

“I take your point, we have seen the pictures, and are taking some action and I will speak to the chief officer in charge of this to find out where we are and come back to you.”

Cllr Vann further asked if changes had been made to the service since he claimed it had been particularly bad since August, and requested a written response and apology to residents.

Cllr Weir confirmed further that the issue would be looked into.