WHEN it comes to a crackdown on dog-fouling in Townhill, the bark is as bad as the bite.

Machines in Townhill Country Park for owners to take dog bags in an emergency have now been fitted with a recorded message reminding them to only use the facility in an emergency.

There’s also further advice to help them be a responsible dog owner.

Townhill Community Council chairman Ronnie Cowan is the voice that people will hear when using the dispensers, which were installed around four years ago.

He said the machines had proved a hit some park users were relying on the free bags too heavily.

“The park is now 99 per cent clear of dog muck however what we have found is some people are coming up and filling their pockets with bags so we decided to work out how we could try and prevent that,” he explained. 

“I managed to source from the States a motion-operated voice box and I have programmed it to say ‘Please take one bag’. It also asks that if children are in the park, please keep dogs on a lead and asks them to pick up their litter.

“What we have also done is reduce the size of the hole in the dispenser so they can only grab one bag. If they want to take more, it will take them longer as they will have to get them individually.”

Mr Cowan says between the six dispensers, dog-walkers go through around 700 bags a week and he is urging them to only use them in a genuine emergency.

“If I approach anyone taking handfuls of bags, the comment is something like they only cost a penny but every time we buy them it is around £800.

“It is annoying when people think that they only cost pennies and help themselves and it then means that when someone has a genuine emergency, there are none there.”

Apart from the minority who use the bags instead of bringing their own, Mr Cowan has been pleased to see the difference the dispensers have made over the last few years.

“Ninety per cent of dog owners are in favour of what we are doing and I dare say you could roll it out across Fife but unfortunately it needs volunteers to keep it going,” he added.

“We are just trying to encourage people to keep the park clean.”