A POSTER campaign aimed at shocking irresponsible dog owners into cleaning up after their pets hit the buffers when two people complained the pictures were too graphic.

Council street wardens and police in the Boscombe area of Bournemouth decided to crack down on dog fouling after receiving feedback from residents fed up with picking their way through poo on the pavements.

A member of the community beat team spoke to council's link office, which ordered posters from Encams, organisers of Keep Britain Tidy and the Blue Flag beach awards.

But within days of the posters being put up on lamp posts, two people complained and the council decided they should be taken down again.

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Baffled community beat officer PC Andy Watkins said: "We were acting on the complaints of residents' groups we have recently set up; from people who have returned our safer neighbourhoods questionnaires; and from people approaching us on the street.

"They are concerned about the amount of dog faeces they are encountering on the pavements and in other public areas. Acting on those complaints, we decided to educate dog owners by using the posters and making people aware of the availability of free bags.

"As a final measure I will be reporting people so that £50 fixed penalty tickets can be issued in relation to this antisocial behaviour."

Inspector Mark Kelly of Boscombe police said: "We're going out to residents' groups and asking what do you want resolved?'. People don't tend to complain about burglaries or robberies, they say they're fed up with dodging poo on the pavement.

"Although it's unsightly to see poo on the poster, it's not as unsightly as seeing it on the bottom of your foot.

"A resident has complained and the council has reacted to that.

"We will seek to resolve this another way."

Jim Clegg, street enforcement manager at Bournemouth council, said: "We fully support the work of our Boscombe street wardens and the police community support officers and we hope that by working together we can try to eradicate this problem from the area.

"We do have a dedicated team of officers that patrol the area but anybody can report an incident of dog fouling.

"If you witness an incident of this kind you can report it to our Environmental Health team on 01202 451296, or our street cleansing team on 01202 451199."