DOG owners are in for a tough time in Blackburn and Darwen - a rare but deserved three cheers for the council!

Officers are to bring in new regulations that will mean fines of up to £1,000 for owners whose dogs foul our green spaces.

There are few things more annoying than watching someone walk his or her dog in a park on a school playing field or along a canal towpath with just one purpose in mind.

OK, sometimes they ARE genuinely exercising their pets but all too often the walk is carried out so that the dog can leave something behind which the owner doesn't want in their own backyard.

No-one could complain if dog owners carried poop scoops with them and cleaned up the mess they cause.

But I suspect the number of people who do that in this area could be counted on two hands.

And that isn't just blind prejudice but practical experience of treading in the dog dirt that litters our paths and almost every patch of grass that people with dogs can get access to.

It is now a well established fact that young children at play and anyone involved in sports on public grassland run very real risks of contracting disease because of careless dog owners.

If pieces of broken glass or razor blades were left in such places police would launch a major inquiry hopefully leading to criminal prosecution - and no-one would dream of trying to defend the offender's actions.

But for some reason dog owners (it is no fault of the dogs themselves) seem to think they have immunity for behaviour which is at least the equivalent of vandalism and whose effects could literally maim an innocent human for life. Grievous bodily harm I call it.

It seemed tragically ironic that a convicted paedophile on parole and awaiting a further sentence was revealed to be living in Blackburn near two primary schools as the annual Children in Need campaign reached its peak.

The fact that headteachers and parents had to find out about the danger in their midst via our sister newspaper is an appalling indictment against those who should be ensuring that the causes of crime are tackled.

It's not good enough just to be able to arrest the offender AFTER the damage has been done. People have a right to be told enough to be put on their guard so they can protect their nearest and dearest from harm.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.