MY father was issued with a fixed penalty notice for dog fouling as part of the councils new implementation of 'Dawn and Dusk' operation.

My father is almost 70 years of age and is a more than responsible dog owner who picks up his dog's waste three times a day on every walk and if he forgets a bag or the dog has more accidents than bags he will return with one and remove the waste.

On this particular day he was approached by two men dressed all in black at 8.05am whom he had already avoided due to them looking intimidating and him being fearful of them.

They ran over aggressively to take a photo of the dog waste and when my father asked if they could provide a bag or allow him to get one from his home which is within two minutes walking distance they threatened a call to the police.

They said the fine would be £1000 if he left the scene. After speaking to the police this is not something that they would implement it was just a false threat. They had no visible ID saying they were council staff this was only produced when my dad asked. There was no interest in the waste actually being removed in fact the total opposite they wanted it left there in order for them to issue the fine.

I feel this is totally unnecessary as the council said they "will not tolerate this behaviour and will adopt whatever tactics are needed to identify and deal with offenders".

The fine has been paid but I feel the council have more concern about issuing the fines than actually keeping the parks and fields of St Helens clean.

When asked what my fine money would be spent on, it is not on cleaning up dog mess from fields and certainly not on more frequently emptying the poo bins.

So I feel they are portraying a false advertisement in saying 'The public deserve to have parks and open green spaces which they and especially their children, can be proud of and enjoy' - yes they do we all do deserve clean areas or our kids to play, well spend the money that you have fined people to do exactly that and not preying on people who make genuine mistakes and frightening the elderly with threats and inappropriate behaviour.

Clare,

Blackbrook.