IN her letter of July 9 with the accompanying photo of a pile of dog waste bags on top of a dog waste bin, Louise Street blames the town council for 'not going to bother emptying the bins'. It's possible that the council had some problem that prevented it doing so, but much more likely that someone filled it with a bag of household waste or the remains of a picnic. Indeed, in the photo is a large white bag which could only contain the poo of an elephant but no doubt contains litter. In any case, the culprits here are the dog walkers who dumped their foul bags in the open rather than bother to take them home or to another bin — surely the worst kind of litter louts! I'm among the majority of people in this country who doesn't own a dog. I don't mind paying through my taxes for the purchase, erection and maintenance of dog waste bins, the collection and disposal of dog waste, the provision of a dog warden and other subsidies to dog owners, though I would prefer the money to go to a service for people that need it, because the alternative seems to be to suffer dog mess throughout our streets and parks. Quite why so many dog owners think that they are entitled to free waste collection (people don't get this!) and open spaces to exercise their pets is beyond me. Maybe when, as I hope, the dog licence is reintroduced at a reasonable rate of, say, £300 a year, (with the usual exemptions), along with universal dog DNA registration, people will think rather harder about the responsibilities — to the dog as well as to society — involved. Meanwhile, what happened to all the dog poo before the bin arrived? Do so many owners really only pick it up if there is a bin handy? Jane Miller Tavistock Regarding 'What's the point . . .' Times Letters, July 9. Firstly, a belated 'well done' and 'thank you' to all those responsible for installing four poo-bins on Whitchurch Down. Secondly, please be patient Ms Street. It's good to see the bins are being well used, so 'well done' too, to all the diligent dog-owners. But I'm sure it will take a little while to assess the demand interval for their emptying. In the meantime, keep up the good work and filling 'em up ! Tim Baxter Tavistock