Sunderland grandmother dog poo fine...

A Wearside great-grandmother has won her fight against a £50 fine for picking up the wrong dog mess.

Pam Robson was accused by Sunderland Council wardens of failing to clean up after Derik, her Labrador, in a field in Houghton-le-Spring in January.

The council said the 60-year-old had picked up mess from a different dog.

When she refused to pay a fixed penalty notice she was threatened with court action, but after speaking to her MP and a solicitor the case was dropped.

Mrs Robson, or Thurlow Way, Houghton-le-Spring, said she had been talking to her daughter on her mobile phone when her dog ran off and relieved itself.

After she cleared up she was approached by two men, one wearing a city council jerkin.
She said: "He said it was the wrong mess and that he was going to issue me with a fine for £50.

"I picked up the other mess too and put it in the bag but he said I'd still be fined."

Later she received a £50 fixed penalty notice threatening court action and a criminal record if she did not pay.

"It felt like the worst kind of bullying," she said.

"I felt as if my integrity was being questioned, so I wrote to my MP, Fraser Kemp, and also went to see a solicitor.

"He told me to let the council take it to court and then we'd show them up for how ridiculous it was."

Sunderland City Council then wrote to Mrs Robson, saying: "Officers at the time were satisfied that an offence had been committed.

"However it appears you may have collected faeces belonging to another dog.

"I have considered your appeal regarding this offence, and can advise that on this occasion the council will not be pursuing the non payment of the fixed penalty notice in the magistrates courts."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/8690370.stm

sounds like another..
'More than your jobs worth'

Oh good grief, really? SO they couldn't catch the idiot that clearly did not pick up after his dog, so they fine the lady that cleans up after both dogs instead????

No wonder the country is in such a mess. (No pun intended)

The councils employ people then wonder why things like this happen because they cannot or are not allowed to think out of the box.

This is your tick sheet adhere too it rigidly and do not dare too make a decision by yourself.

Makes my blood boil.

What??? Are you kidding me? Even if she picked up the WRONG mess, she picked up A mess and left the place no worse than when she first appeared.

Frankly, if it had been me, I would have dumped the poop I picked up back where I found it and picked up the other one and gone on my way. What morons!

muttzrule - you must remember this is England where officialdom always take the easy way out, some local council muppet has probably set a 'target' for so many fixed penalty notices to be issued so the workers just hand them out, they don't care, they don't know what 'real' work means.

It gets me mad too, as I said above they were probably told they are not issuing enough 'fixed penalty' notices so they go out and 'target' little old women 'cos they know they often just pay up.

Think outside the box, council workers, you must be joking

As with the council `officers` who tried to have the blind guy prosecuted for not picking up, these little jobsworths have made fools of themselves and the council. In both cases the fines were withdrawn.
Tha answer is obvious - fight!
(I`m also wondering if they have a `quota` to fill?)
In our area there are notices saying dogs must be on lead `if a council officer requests it`. One actually told a lady with a Mastiff she had to keep her dog on lead `because someone said their dog was frightened of it`. The mastiff in question is a big softie and nowhere near any other dogs.
I`m not sure how one would go about challenging this. At least with poop there`s evidence.

I read this story today in my local paper-very strange-poor lady!

Officialdom seems to be taking over but sometimes you can jump to the wrong conclusion....

I was walking my 2 on a pleasant walk alongside the river near the University of East Anglia one afternoon when I was approached by a man who said he was from the Environment agency and had I seen the signs near the car park as you started the riverside walk? My heart sank as Parker was pottering about off-leash and I thought I had missed a sign saying dogs were to be on-leash. However, he was just informing me that due to riverbank work the walk would be closed for a couple of weeks during the day and as I was a dog walker he thought I may use the area regularly.
This was really nice of him as I obviously had missed the sign but read it on my way out!

Are there courses that these people go on that somehow removes any shred of commonsense they might have had, or is that stated in the job advert - "only stupid people need apply"

That is ridiculous!

lol Then you would probably have been fined for throwing dog poo about. Jobsworth comes to mind, a bit like Traffic Wardens perhaps