In November 2023, our Environmental Services team began to struggle cutting grass in many communal areas across Ashton. This was fed back to our Community Engagement Team, to see whether anything could be organised to help make improvements in the area.
To better understand the dog fouling issues in the area, our Engagement and Communities Officers carried out a dog foul count across four sites and counted 74 in total.
In response, a Dog Fouling Day of Action was planned, aiming to raise awareness of being a responsible dog owner and improving your neighbourhood as a place to live.
Local waste collection service, Thrive Services offered to come along and tidy up the area, doing their bit for the community.
It was noticed during the initial visit that there weren't many places to dispose of dog foul in the area, so our Environmental Services team joined the action day, and installed a brand-new dog waste bin off Birkdale Drive.
We spoke to Ashton Primary School about whether they would be interested in getting involved too, and pupils from year 3 and 6 got straight to work creating posters in class that encouraged everyone to tidy up after their dogs.
Six children from the school also joined us on the action day itself to put up their posters, speak to local tenants and dog walkers and hand out goody bags (which included dog foul bags, a dispenser and leaflets).
Our Engagement and Communities Officers revisited the site three months later to recount the dog foul and were pleased to discover a significant 70% reduction!
They were also told by a tenant living in the area:
"Now the dog foul bin is there, people use it all the time. I used to have to walk to the litter bin on Blackpool Road which is further away. I struggle to walk a long way so now use the new one.
It is definitely being used, I see people using it all the time."