Park is no safe haven for animals

Andrew Cowie • Published 31 Mar 2010 16:00 1 Comment

Local councillor Mark Hood is this week calling on Fife Council to take steps to ensure that the public park in Lochgelly is save for people to take their pets to after he has been contacted by a large number of dog owners who have faced heavy veterinary bills after their animals had been cut with broken glass in the park.

Speaking this week to the Central Fife Times the councillor said, "I am appalled by the number of animals that have been hurt during visits to the park.

"The park must be save for everyone to use. I have written to officers in environmental services to ensure that the park is given a through clean and any broken glass is removed.

"I have also written to local police officers asking them to step up patrols in the area as this issue will not be resolved to until we address the issue of anti social behaviour in the park".

The councillor has been alerted to the issue by a petition of over sixty dog owners who use the park.

Many of the people who have signed the petition had a dog that was injured while in the park. The councillor added, "Despite the obvious distress caused to the animals, the cost of treatment is very expensive and many dog owners have faced considerable vet's bills, running into the hundreds of pounds. This is simply unfair and the issue needs to be addressed.

"The park is a great asset to our community and should be able to be enjoyed by everyone.

"The safety of people and animals using the park is of paramount importance. I will monitoring the situation and would urge people to contact me if they do not see the situation improving over the next few weeks."

Fife Council's Brian Shand said that teams were visiting Lochgelly Public Park three times a week to tackle the situation.

He said, "We are very aware of the problems being experienced in Lochgelly Public Park.

"Normally the teams visit parks once between seven and ten days to clean up any mess left but such has been the situation at the town's park we have been carrying out visits three times a week.

"The men have been trying to keep the broken glass problem in check but unfortunately it would seem that there is a bit of an anti-social behaviour problem that is causing the situation to recur.

"It is very frustrating for the workers to have to repeatedly clean up after the visits of these people who are causing this problem." It would appear that much of broken glass stems from the area around the youth shelter in the park.

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• 

  Lochgelly
  Unregistered User
  Apr 16, 11:14
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  I would like to add that this issue also affects Timmons Park and any other public space where the youths are involving themselves with drinking.
  
  I know this issue has been raised at the Lochgelly Community Council several months ago, and was handled quickly by Fife Council. But the problem does reoccur again and again.
  
  It was suggested that people should report the problem to Fife Council and maybe signage could be placed within the parks with a telephone number that people can use to contact the correct department within Fife Council.
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

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