Cast your minds back to January 2025. We asked on AberdareOnline where RCT Council’s 14 Dog Wardens and Community Wardens had disappeared to. We questioned whether the promised crackdown following complaints from Llantwit Fardre RFC — dogs running riot on their sports pitches — amounted to anything more than a strongly worded Facebook post and a group photo of 12 men holding red bins.
Spoiler: nobody could find them then. Can you spot one now?
Here we are again. Nine years since the Public Spaces Protection Order was introduced, and the council has launched yet another consultation — running from 8th June to 20th July — asking residents whether the rules are working. The same rules. The same fines. The same promises.
Yes, dog fouling dropped from 18% in 2017 to 8.9% in 2021-22. But then it went back up to 10.9% the following year, and complaints are still flooding in. The council’s own Cabinet Member admits as much. So after nine years and multiple rounds of consultation, dog mess is still a problem — and the solution on offer is apparently another six weeks of filling in forms online.
Meanwhile, services are being cut left, right and centre across RCT, but somehow there’s always enough budget left for another glossy consultation exercise and another cabinet member quote about “working together for the safety of our community.”
If you’re fed up — and judging by your comments last January, plenty of you are — then at least use this consultation to make your voice heard. Tell them what enforcement actually looks like from where you’re standing. Or rather, where you’re carefully stepping.
Have your say at lets-talk.rctcbc.gov.uk/pspo-dog-fouling — closes 20th July Report fouling at rctcbc.gov.uk/ReportDogFouling
Editor’s Note: Just Get Out There and Patrol
Since publishing our story on RCT’s latest dog fouling consultation, the response from readers has been predictable — and telling.
Nobody is arguing against tackling dog fouling. Everyone wants cleaner streets and safe sports pitches. The frustration is simpler than that: stop consulting and start patrolling.
RCT Council is cutting basic frontline services left, right and centre, yet somehow always finds the budget for another round of consultations, another report, another cabinet member quote. Paper pushing costs money too — it just doesn’t actually clean anything up.
Fourteen Community Wardens are supposedly out there across the County Borough. A £100 fine exists for a reason. Use them.
Save the consultation budget. Put boots on the ground instead.
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