Spray on warnings are the latest weapon in the fight against dog fouling.

The brightly coloured pavement stencils will be used to remind owners that it is an offence to allow their dogs to foul designated areas of land, without cleaning up after them.

Warnings have already been painted on pavements in parts of East Bolton and Great Lever and will be used in other parts of the borough where dog mess has been identified as a nuisance from April. Other parts of Bolton set to get the signs include Farnworth, Tonge Park, Hall i' th' Wood, Nevice Grove, Longsight Lane, Oxford Grove Estate and New Bury estate.

They will be used in areas where conventional signs are not appropriate such as gateways to parks and paths and where there is no street furniture that signs can be attached to.

It has been designed to be simple and eye catching alerting the public to the problem of dog fouling.

The council is also to erect more than 5,000 new brightly coloured anti-litter and dog fouling signs as part of its Bin it for Bolton campaign.

Cllr Roger Hayes, executive member for Direct Services and Area Working said: "Many signs previously erected were vandalised, so we are looking at another means of highlighting dog fouling offences.

"The pavement stencils are very robust and extremely eye catching. The extra publicity is aimed at reminding people that if they fail to clean up after their dogs or drop litter they could be handed a £50 on-the-spot fine. Failure to pay will result in action being taken through the Magistrates Court.

It is the latest in a series of measures by the council to tackle the problem of dog fouling including handing out free poop scoop bags and a major award-winning publicity campaign.