A councillor has backed a campaign to reduce the levels of dog mess within a local community.

Councillor Graham Carr-Jones said the campaign, launched by Stalbridge Town Council, was "perfectly targeted" to tackle the issue and hoped it could provide a model to follow for other towns and villages across Dorset.

The project focuses on target areas where dog fouling is prevalent: Stalbridge Town Council has invested in 55 new signs, commissioned from a local graphic designer, to engage with the public and encourage them to look after their own pathways, streets and green areas through responsible ‘bagging and binning’ behaviour.

Katie Garland, Chairman of Stalbridge Town Council, said she recognised a concerted effort was needed in order to tackle the increasing problem.

She said: “We are a pet friendly town but the dog mess is so unpleasant so we have spent some considerable time creating a campaign in a bid to help us tackle the problem of dog fouling in our community.

“There’s plenty of evidence that most dog walkers do pick up (but) unfortunately it’s a minority that don’t and are spoiling it for the wider community.”

Stalbridge Town Council has created an online map highlighting the locations of dog poo bins throughout the town - combined with pop-up reinforcement messages for each location - in an effort to help residents achieve the goal of being a ‘dog poo free town’ .

Cllr Carr-Jones, Dorset Council portfolio holder for housing and community safety, said: “I welcome this new initiative from Stalbridge Town Council.

This well thought out campaign and the concerted effort made by all those involved can help Stalbridge become a dog friendly, poo free town.

“I think the campaign is perfectly targeted to help solve the problem and feel that other towns & villages across Dorset and the UK could benefit from this type of groundbreaking campaign.”

A spokesperson for Stalbridge Town Council said: “As well as being extremely unpleasant, dog poo can be incredibly dangerous to young children and vulnerable people, as well as farm livestock and other animals and with this in mind the town council are asking residents and visitors to engage with the new campaign to make their town something to be proud of.”