PARENTS, staff and pupils at a West Somerset school are calling for a crackdown on irresponsible dog owners in a bid to clean up their local streets.

Youngsters at Minehead First School regularly have to dodge the results of dog fouling on their way to school and even right outside the gates of the campus, which has entrances in Townsend Road and Paganel Road.

Now fed-up parents are leading a campaign for tougher action on people who fail to clean up after their pets.

They have raised a petition and are appealing to dog owners to act responsibly.

But if the appeal for better behaviour fails, they want to see prosecutions which they hope will act as a deterrent.

Headteacher James Geen said dog fouling had been a fairly persistent problem in the Paganel Road area and neighbouring streets for a number of years.

But he said concerns had been raised more recently by the school's parent focus group.

"It really is very unpleasant and a serious health and safety issue when dog fouling takes place where children or parents can step in it or it gets on the wheels of pushchairs or prams and then it is brought into school," said Mr Geen.

"It has been a continuing problem for years but now we hope something can be done about it.

"We are appealing to dog owners to be more responsible but we would also like to see more dog bins and more patrols by dog wardens in the area.

"It's such a simple thing to expect someone to clean up their dog's mess and it's beyond belief that they don't.

"Parents in particular have just had enough of the situation."

The school has won the backing of Minehead Mayor Cllr Terry Venner, who was presented with the petition -which has attracted at least 215 signatures - this week.

He said he would be handing it over to West Somerset Council and calling for action to resolve the problem.

"I am more than happy to support the school and I have to agree that there is definitely a problem in Minehead," he said.

"I've walked around the Queens Road and Irnham Road areas very recently and the state of the pavements was frankly appalling."

Cllr Venner said his authority - Minehead Town Council - had nine dog bins in the town but none close to the school.

However, the district council had at least 30 dog bins across the town.

And he said that although the concerns had been raised by Minehead First, around 2,000 children could potentially be affected by the problem every day.

"At least that number of young people from the town's schools walk through this area daily," he said.

"What I would really like to see is a couple of prosecutions because I think that would frighten people and perhaps encourage them to act responsibly.

"I know this is something of an on-going problem but people are very concerned.

"Apart from the fact that it's not very nice, we are talking about a risk to children's health."

In a statement, a district council spokesman said: "Following reports we have visited the area several times to clean up but found very little fouling.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and ask people who can issue notices and fines, such as our grounds maintenance and parking teams and police community support officers who often work in the area, to target the vicinity.

"We will also send out contractors if necessary."

The spokesman said that if there was an under-used dog bin in the area, the council would be happy to consider moving it to an identified problem site.

She said the authority could also arrange for any town or parish council to install its own bins if they wished.

"We know the majority of dog owners are responsible," she said. "However, we urge those who do not pick up after their pets to make the effort for their friends, neighbours and everyone in the town.

"It does not take a minute, it improves the environment for all and there are bins in key locations, so there is no excuse not to."

The district council currently pays SDK Environmental around £28,000 a year for pest control and dog warden services.

Last April the authority decided to axe scheduled patrols by wardens in a bid to save money and after hearing that just three fixed penalties had been issued across the district for dog fouling in the previous 12 months.

Regular patrols are, however, still carried out to enforce the summer season beach ban in Minehead and the council does have the option to buy in additional enforcement patrols for other areas if needed.

Presenting the petition to Minehead Mayor Cllr Terry Venner, from left, house captains Ethan Plenty, Guy Milton-Jenkins, Carla Scott, Gregory Horrobin and Rhianna Cunningham.

Photo: Steve Guscott