A KILWINNING councillor says more needs to be done to tackle litter and dog-fouling in North Ayrshire.

Labour’s Donald Reid wants more action after new figures released by North Ayrshire Council show that only one fixed penalty notice for littering in North Ayrshire has been issued by the council since March 2014.

The figures, revealed at the most recent full council meeting, also show that in the last 18 months, 54 fixed penalty notices were issued for dog fouling with 26 being handed out for fly-tipping.

Kilwinning has suffered from a number of fly-tipping incidents over the years with Councillor Reid joining forces with the Promoting Kilwinning group for a number of clean-ups across the town.

There was some confusion at the meeting last week when Councillor Reid insisted that figures he obtained relating to fixed penalty’s differed to that of the council’s.

SNP Councillor Tony Gurney, cabinet member for community and culture, said he was unaware of the figures being incorrect. But it was revealed that in fact the council incorrectly stated that 26 litter and one fly-tipping notices were issued.

Although he admitted some progress had been made, Councillor Reid insists tougher action needs to be taken to make North Ayrshire cleaner.

Speaking to the Times this week, he said: “We need to be doing more not less.

"There’s been some progress with the policy in the last three years but the community wardens are doing the enforcement work as Streetscene seem unable to do it.

"I also want to see what the police are doing to get North Ayrshire a bit cleaner. I know from the mailbag I get from people complaining day in day out about dog fouling that they want to see something done.”

A spokesperson for North Ayrshire Council, said: “We have a three pronged approach to litter, fly-tipping and dog fouling:

"Education – working with communities to advise them of the impact of such actions and the role they can play to help prevent them;

"Enable – providing the tools and facilities to allow communities to responsibly dispose of litter etc; and

"Enforcement – take action to prosecute or fine offenders.

“We continue to develop and implement local initiatives to support these three key strands.

“Since the implementation of the Council’s Litter, Fly-tipping and Dog Fouling Prevention Strategy in 2014 a total of 81 Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued as follows:

  • Dog fouling – 54
  • Litter – 1
  • Fly-tipping – 26”