SHROPSHIRE councillors for the Oswestry region have called on residents to be more considerate when cleaning up dog mess.

Councillors Clare Aspinall and Paul Milner have voiced concerns over the amount of dog mess that is left on the streets of the town.

Both Cllr Aspinall and Cllr Milner are concerned the increased amount of mess on the streets may put tourists off the idea of returning to the town.

Cllr Aspinall said: “This is an issue all over town and we want to do what we can to solve it.

“We just want people to pick up the poo – there are plenty of bins in the town.

“It’s a blight on a nice beautiful community and we don’t want to put people off the idea of visiting the area.

“We want to boost tourism ideally rather than push people away.

“We have always found it to be worse in the winter than other times of year, and it’s usually the case that the centre of town is better than other areas a bit further out.

“There are a lot of footpaths and alleyways that are covered in it.

“The council do a great job of keeping the streets clean, but we want to make sure residents are doing their best to help them.

“They shouldn’t be expected to clean up after people.”

Cllr Milner added: “99.9 per cent of dog walkers are brilliant, but there’s the 0.01 per cent who will leave it on the pavement or bag it up and leave it somewhere.

“We just want people to be a little more considerate when they can and ensure they don’t leave it lying around.

“Children have to walk to school, it’s not nice for families to want to avoid walking to school for fear of walking through the mess.

“Like we said it’s not so bad in the centre, but I think that’s partly down to the fact there are more areas monitored by CCTV.”

Cllr Aspinall is also concerned about the dog mess potentially causing a threat to cattle and livestock.

She added: “We’ve heard stories before about cattle chewing on bags of dog mess that have been thrown into fields.

“This can be fatal for animals and often results in them being put down.”

Oswestry Town Councillor Steve Mason has given his support to Cllr Milner and Cllr Aspinall.

He said: "This is an issue that needs highlighting in the town.

"It seems as though the minority are giving dog walkers a bad name because most of them are brilliant.

"I feel as though it is worse now than it has been for a long time.

"We just want people to be more respectful with their pets - all we want at the end of the day is a clean town."

Any issues regarding dog mess can be reported to Shropshire Council on 0345 678 9006.