JUST three fixed penalties were issued in West Somerset for dog fouling in the whole of the last 12 months and no-one was prosecuted for failing to clean up after their pet.

The news caused consternation among district councillors when they met last Wednesday and sparked calls for a new company to be brought in to run the council's dog warden service.

The council currently pays £35,600 a year to SDK Environmental for both pest control and dog warden services.

At Wednesday's cabinet meeting, councillors agreed the current system of paying for 16 hours of scheduled patrols was not working and did not offer taxpayers value for money.

They accepted 16 hours was not enough to do the job properly but conceded they could not afford to increase the wardens' hours either.

Instead, councillors opted to cut the patrols completely and trim the service back to the statutory minimum - pest control and a 9am to 5pm, seven day a week stray dog service.

However, a new clause would be written in to the contract to ensure regular patrols were still carried out to enforce the summer season beach ban on dogs in Minehead.

Ian Timms, the council's community manager, said the change to the contract would save the authority £7,200 over the next 12 months, although the council still had the option to buy-in additional enforcement patrols at £35 per hour if needed.

Mr Timms said: "One of the elements of the current delivery is that we send a dog warden to look at dog fouling.

"Members felt that it would be more effective to send the street cleansing contractor to clean this and report back areas that could then be targeted for patrols.

"Currently we send out two contractors to look at the same problem, which is double handling."

He said that although routine patrols would be cut, police community support officers now had powers to issue fixed penalty notices to people who allowed their dogs to foul public places.

Under the new contract proposals, SDK Environmental would also take on all office administration duties, freeing up council staff as a result.

"This will produce time savings to the council, both in customer services and, more importantly, will release officers to other tasks," Mr Timms said.

Cabinet members agreed to alter the existing contract and to extend it for one more year, but said it should be closely monitored to ensure the council received value for money.