FOI FRIDAY – The Enforcement Smokescreen

Welcome to the first of our “FOI Friday” posts, where we will start sharing some of the facts and figures that we have managed to collect via Freedom of Information requests.

Firstly, let’s talk (again) about “enforcement”.

A constant excuse from Edinburgh Council for not implementing stronger Cemetery Management Rules around the issue of dogs in cemeteries is “it is impossible to enforce”.

We heard it again this week, at our meeting with Edinburgh Council’s Bereavement Services.

Our argument is that:

a)      Regardless of what the Cemetery Management Rules are, they will always be difficult to enforce. The current Cemetery Management Rules are just as unenforceable.

b)      Other Scottish Councils, many of whom have a higher number of cemeteries to manage, a larger geographical area to cover, and less staff, seem to have no issue trying to enforce more stringent rules around dogs in cemeteries. They might not always be successful, but at least they are trying.

c)      And most importantly, just because something is deemed in Edinburgh Council’s opinion to be “impossible to enforce”, that does not mean you do not try.

Case in point: Dog Fouling

We use dog fouling as an example, as it is the closest we can get to the issues around dogs in cemeteries.

The Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 means that any person who is in charge of a dog must pick up and get rid of the dog's fouling, by putting it in any litter bin or their own non-recyclable bin. Fixed penalty notices of £80 will be issued to those caught not picking up after their dog in any public place, including:

·         footpaths and roads

·         parks, including football or rugby pitches

·         shared land like back greens, stairs, and closes

·         any open land that the public has access to.   

Out of all the places listed above, let us just consider roads.

There are around 6160 roads that Edinburgh Council are responsible for (a lot more than 43 cemeteries).

How do we know that? Because we counted them all up, from Edinburgh Council’s own web site: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/directory/10231/a-to-z/A

Those of you who have been reading our petition updates since the start, will recall we posted 2016 figures, showing the total amount of Fixed Penalty Notices issued for dog fouling, by all the Scottish Councils.

We did not get these statistics from FOI requests (as claimed by the counter petition).

We got them from a newspaper article…however we have used FOI requests to get the same statistics for many Scottish Councils (there are a few stragglers we are waiting on) for the most recently available year, 2023.

The full list of figures will be at the end of this update, but let’s cut to the chase.

Edinburgh Council issued 5 Fixed Penalty Notices for dog fouling in the whole of 2023.

…that is for all the above listed places…the parks, football and rugby pitches, back greens, stairs, closes, open land, and the 6100 streets.

...5

…in 365 days.

There would be 5 instances of dog fouling in an hour in Edinburgh, on any given day, that would warrant a Fixed Penalty Notice, never mind in a whole year. Paul knows this for a fact, having spent 22 years working in the Street Cleansing Team at Edinburgh Council.

Dog fouling acts are of course, impossible to enforce. Edinburgh Council does not have an Enforcement Officer on every street corner, in every park, pitch, back green, stair or close…

Looking at the statistics for other areas such as Glasgow, Dundee (a smaller city), and Fife, Edinburgh Council absolutely failed to enforce the rules around dog fouling in 2023.

Glasgow (population 635,130)                 - 145 Fixed Penalty Notices issued in 2023
Fife (population 374,730)                           - 95 Fixed Penalty Notices issued in 2023
Dundee (population 147.720)                  – 11 Fixed Penalty Notices issues in 2023
Edinburgh (population 526,470)               – 5 Fixed Penalty Notices issued in 2023

However, the difficulties around enforcing the Dog Fouling Act are no reason for the Act not to exist, and for Councils to not at least attempt to enforce it.

Cemetery Management Rules around dogs in cemeteries should be viewed in the same light.

Here is some more Freedom of Information data we have received:

Let’s look at a close neighbour of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Borders Council, who have a rule of “no dogs apart from assistance dogs” in cemeteries, and compare the two Councils:

Edinburgh Council:

Number of Cemeteries:                                              43
Council Geographical Area                                        263.4 square miles 
Number of Bereavement Services Staff:                  21

Scottish Borders Council:

Number of Cemeteries                                               154
Council Geographical Area                                         472 square miles
Number of Bereavement Services Staff                   12

So Scottish Borders Council, a council with over three times as many cemeteries to cover, nearly half the staff, and a larger geographical area almost double the size to cover, at the very least attempt to enforce their more stringent rules.

Yet Edinburgh Council’s response is “we can’t enforce stronger rules – so there is no point in making them”?

To use that excuse is a total cop out.…it is a smokescreen.

2023 FIXED PENALTY NOTICES ISSUED FOR DOG FOULING

Aberdeen - 2
Aberdeenshire - 0
Angus - data to come
Argyll & Bute - 3
Comhairle - 0
Edinburgh - 5
Clackmannanshire - 0
Dumfries & Galloway - 19
Dundee - 11
East Ayrshire - 5
East Dunbartonshire - 5
East Lothian - 0
East Renfrewshire - 1
Falkirk - 1
Fife - 95
Glasgow - 145
Highlands - 0
Inverclyde - 8
Midlothian - 2
Moray - 8
North Ayrshire - 22
North Lanarkshire - 1
Orkney - 0
Perth & Kinross - data to come    
Renfrewshire - data to come
Scottish Borders - 6
Shetland - 0
South Ayrshire - data to come
South Lanarkshire - data to come    
Stirling - 5
West Dunbartonshire - data to come
West Lothian - 0