TAVISTOCK is to withdraw from West Devon's dog warden scheme, after councillors last week claimed the town was not receiving value for money.

Members of the town council's properties committee heard that membership of the scheme cost £4,256 a year.

This fee is paid to West Devon Borough Council, towards the cost of employing a part-time dog warden, who had to cover the eight participating parishes of Tavistock, Bere Alston, Bere Ferrers, Lifton, South Zeal, Sticklepath, Chagford and Mary Tavy.

Last year, the dog warden made 58 visits to Tavistock, with an average visit time of three and a half hours.

Tavistock's contribution is 50% of the overall pot collected from the parishes — based on the number of visits made and the average time spent in the town, the committee was told the warden's services equated to £20.33 an hour.

Cllr Ted Sherrell proposed leaving the scheme as soon as possible.

He said: 'I am not sure if the warden is a man or a woman because you never see them. We are paying for something where we don't just get a poor service, we get hardly any service at all.

'I think the time has come to say let's get shot of our involvement with this.'

Cllr John Sellis said: 'There was one prosecution last year and none since — it's been an absolute waste of money and we would be better off training our own staff.

'I know Okehampton has already withdrawn from the scheme — perhaps we could talk to them.'

Cllr Sue Bailey said she had tried to contact the dog warden on behalf of a member of the public very recently. She said the warden had seemed under pressure, having a huge area to cover in just 22.5 hours a week. He had also run out of yellow spray paint, used to mark problem areas.

Town mayor Cllr Philip Sanders said the fact the dog warden did not wear any type of uniform was also a failing in the system.

'Deterrent is more effective than prosecution. To my mind having a dog warden patrolling isn't any form of deterrent if that person isn't clearly identified as a dog warden,' said Cllr Sanders.

'I've had four complaints in the last fortnight about dog mess. I am not criticising the person doing the job but given the number of hours they have, the sheer scale of the area is unmanageable.'

The committee heard that West Devon Council would still have a statutory duty to undertake street cleaning, including removal of dog mess, even if Tavistock was not part of the dog warden scheme.

Members agreed the council should withdraw from the scheme with effect from April 1, and investigate the costs of training staff to act as dog wardens in council-owned areas such as the Meadows and play areas.

Officers would also be in contact with other parish councils to see if partnerships could be formed to deal with issues arising out of not being part of the borough's dog warden scheme.

The decision was due to be ratified by the full council at its meeting on Tuesday night.