THE suggestion that dogs should be banned from Tavistock's Meadows was repeated during a meeting of the town council last week, as members agreed new action was required to deal with the mounting problem of dog fouling.

Cllr Mandy Ewing said she felt the recommendation of the town's properties committee, to introduce dog control orders on town council-owned land and take responsibility for issuing fixed penalty notices to offenders on such land, while re-joining the West Devon dog warden scheme temporarily, was 'a bit elitist'.

'To be fair and equitable to the whole town, you should ban dogs from the Meadows, because every resident is then getting the same deal,' she said.

Cllr Brian Trew said when the town council had been part of the West Devon scheme, it had been 'absolutely useless'.

He backed the recommendation, because under re-negotiated terms, the West Devon scheme could work more satisfactorily, particularly if the town council was also taking action itself.

But he added that the council should look at the problem from a whole town perspective, not just on its own land.

He said: ' I am not anti-dog, I am anti- irresponsible dog owners, the sort who don't carry a bag in their pockets. It's totally unacceptable for our staff to get covered in dog poo, or for young children playing on the climbing frames to find it all over their hands because another child has trodden in it.'

Cllr Philip Sanders said the only way to deal with the problem was to accept it would cost a fair amount of money, but to budget properly for it and base a policy on proper statistics.

'The only solution is that we start to prosecute people. We won't need to prosecute many, because the message will start to get out,' said Cllr Sanders, who agreed with Cllr Trew's additional recommendation, that council should act for the benefit of all electors, not just concentrate on town council land.

The proposal was backed by the council. Works department staff are to meet with West Devon Borough Council officers shortly to discuss the issue further.