Meeting of the Parliament 02 February 2016
I congratulate Cameron Buchanan on bringing forward this important debate, while apologising to him, the cabinet secretary and the Presiding Officer because I have to leave as soon as I have finished speaking. I should not really be speaking in the debate because I am due to be at a meeting in my constituency, but, when I saw the motion, I could not not speak because of the reference to the Leithers don’t litter campaign.
I will mention education and enforcement briefly, but what has struck me most recently is the contribution of voluntary groups to the effort. That has been brought to my attention because of the amazing Leithers don’t litter campaign. It has been going for only a few months but it has engaged large numbers of people in the community. When I have a bit more time on my hands in seven weeks, I will want to get involved personally in the campaign.
One of the key things that the campaign is doing is adopting a street, which is the concept that Kenneth Gibson described a moment ago. If people go on to the Facebook page, they can sign up to adopt a street. There is a clear focus on litter but there is also a focus on dog fouling. A few days ago, there was a post on the page saying that dog poo had even been found in a children’s playground. That has prompted the campaign to organise a demonstration of responsible dog walkers in Leith. That is part of a community effort to put pressure on those who behave in an antisocial way in relation to dog fouling to change their behaviour. It is one of the best community initiatives that I have seen and I cannot speak highly enough of all the many people in my constituency who are involved.
Those people clearly want to keep Leith beautiful. Leith is beautiful. It is spoilt only by litter and dog fouling. To my mind, if litter is bad, dog fouling is even worse. I spoke about the example of the children’s playground but my own family had an incident last week. My three-year-old granddaughter was going to nursery school and got a massive amount of dog poo on her boots. It was under the soles and up the side of the boots and she had to go to nursery school like that. That is absolutely shocking from every point of view, especially from a health point of view. We have to have a special effort to change people’s behaviour in relation to that issue. I often say—not entirely jokingly—that any politician who could get rid of dog fouling in my constituency would be elected to Parliament instantly because so many people feel so strongly about it.
Enforcement is important, as is education in schools. There are sometimes national campaigns about such issues and I suggest that there should be a national initiative and campaign about this problem of dog fouling. However, it has to be backed up by enforcement. I do not see how culture change can be brought about unless there is a stronger element of enforcement. One of the problems is that there are not enough environmental wardens to catch people. Of course, we understand the reasons for that, given council budgets. Another problem is that the fixed-penalty notices that can be imposed by environmental wardens are not always paid. In fact, they are not paid on a large number of occasions and the fiscals are not always willing to intervene. The offence must be given higher status. It is very serious antisocial behaviour and there has to be an organised effort at the enforcement and legal levels to deal with it, as well as the wider initiatives for cultural change.
In my final 10 seconds, I again pay tribute to Leithers don’t litter. I cannot speak highly enough of the work that the campaign has done and is continuing to do.
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