A PONGY situation at a Nailsea playing field could be scooped up for good thanks to the persistence of the town council.

The Times reported in November 2010 the council wanted to implement a dog control order for playing fields at Grove Sports Centre to force owners to clear up after their pets and keep them on a lead.

The town council wrote to North Somerset Council to ask the authority to carry out a public consultation on the idea.

The authority then wrote to other town and parish councils to see if they also wanted to set up similar orders which has resulted in 24 requests.

And following the matter being raised again at a town council meeting on April 4, North Somerset Council has announced there will be a public consultation held during June.

The fields are used regularly by Nailsea United Football Club, Nailsea Juniors and Nailsea Cricket Club and members often complain of dog mess on the pitch.

Town council leader Rod Lees said: “Across the district and country this issue causes an enormous amount of annoyance.”

Town clerk Ian Morrell said: “North Somerset first proposed doing a public consultation at the start of 2011 but it has still not happened.

“This would involve asking people whether they wanted areas where dogs would have to be on a lead or banned.

“The town council was very keen to see this happen as there are certain areas, such as sports playing fields, where dog mess is a particular problem.”

The orders would give certain people the power to to take a name and address of an offending owner and give it to North Somerset Council or issue a fixed penalty notice.

Mr Morrell added: “They would be issued with high visibility jackets and hopefully incidents would be reduced because people will be seen to have powers.”