More people are complaining about dog poo in Wirral in the wake of the pandemic.

Last night's meeting of Wirral Council's Environment and Transport Committee heard that reports of dog fouling on the authority's website were up by 23% since the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020.

Liberal Democrat councillor Allan Brame, who represents Oxton, said that a couple of people had picked up 145 dog poo bags around his local church while they were tidying the area.

He asked what on earth gets into people to make them think they can use church grounds to dump dog waste.

The Lib Dem member emphasised the importance of educating people on the problem.

Cllr Brame was speaking in a discussion on the council's new strategy to deal with environmental problems including littering and dog fouling.

The 'Love Wirral' strategy emphasises working with people to encourage them to avoid littering and working with dog owners to make sure they deal with dog poo themselves.

This so-called 'discretionary' approach is hugely different from the zero tolerance approach adopted by the council until 2019 when it employed a company called Kingdom to clamp down on littering and dog fouling.

Kingdom's contract with Wirral Council was terminated early as its enforcement was seen as overzealous.

Responding to Cllr Brame's comments, council officer Mike Cockburn said behaviour has changed during the pandemic and some "unusual suspects" may have started walking dogs, which could have contributed towards a problem with dog poo in suburban areas.

But he added that over the last 10 years dog owners have changed and they are dealing with dog poo better.

Mr Cockburn said that by "being steely" and taking action where it could, the local authority could get on top of the problem.

Cllr Chris Cooke, who represents the Green Party, was keen to make sure that the pendulum did not swing too far away from enforcement and that a position in between zero tolerance and encouraging people to improve their behaviour was found.

Labour's Helen Collinson said that there are serious problems with dog fouling outside schools and called on the council to do more to educate children and parents and stop bad behaviour.

Cllr Mike Collins, who represents the Conservatives, had some different ideas.

He said he was aware of a school which gave drivers who sped past it the opportunity to appear in front of a kind of children's court and explain why they had done so rather than taking a speeding ticket.

Cllr Collins said it had worked in some schools and was something which could be looked at.

He said some local authorities had also introduced by-laws saying enforcement action could be carried out against dog walkers if they did not carry dog poo bags with them.

But Mr Cockburn said the latter idea could be controversial and that it was part of the approach looked at when the council worked with Kingdom.

You can report dog fouling to the council by clicking or tapping here.