Astley Bridge children design posters aim to ‘eradicate dog poo'

The annual poster competition was judged by Cllrs Hilary Fairclough and Toby Hewitt, with two winners announced at the annual Easter event in Andrew Lane Park on Saturday, March 30.

Mia Grace Wakefield, aged 5, won the competition with her poster design which gives a clear message of ‘no poo on my shoe’.

Amelia Threlfall-Makin, aged 12, came in second place with her design, which tells people to ‘pick it up or don’t come’.

The winning poster design (Image: Cllr Hilary Fairclough)

Both the winners will see their posters professionally printed and displayed in the area.

Mia’s mum, Jennifer Hunt, said: “I’m really proud of her, she tried really hard with it and obviously it’s really good it’s going all over Astley Bridge.

“It’s only a little town, she’ll be able to see it walking to school and stuff. We’re very, very proud of her.”

Each entrant received a small Easter egg as a ‘thank you’ for taking part in the competition, with the winners additionally receiving a goody box.

Cllr Hilary Fairclough, who helped judge the competition, said: “It was really, really lovely to see the ones who had entered. For me, it’s the getting involved.

“The vast majority of dog owners are really good, caring people who look after their dogs and pick up after their dogs, and then there’s there people who are just lazy, they just can’t be bothered to pick up after them.

“The thing is, there’s such a lot of disease with dog poo and things like that. As the winner rightly says, every one of us has dog poo on our shoe at one point, it’s the worst thing isn’t it? You go ‘oh God, look at this’, then you’ve got to scrape it off.

“I was very, very pleased that they joined in and took the time to do the pictures, and I’m sure that they’re going to be really successful in our campaign to try and eradicate dog poo in Astley Bridge.”

The runner-up poster design (Image: Cllr Hilary Fairclough)

The Conservative Astley Bridge councillor continued: “I think the biggest problem is enforcement. I have to say, in Bolton we have a fantastic dog warden – I couldn’t praise him hard enough.

“He’s one man, and he does all the stencilling [signs on paths warning to pick up poo], and he does all the following up on enforcement, and he is quite successful considering you have to catch them in the act.

“Nothing is ever too much trouble, he’s really, really good. I’ve often contacted him and asked if he can do a bit of stencilling or put signs up.”