TWO residents have cried foul after their respective Barry town centre neighbourhoods were blighted by rubbish and dog mess.

Home owner Gareth Buckland, of Newlands Street, Buttrills, and Beverly Conham, of Coronation Street, Castleland, spoke of their disgust at the excrement and discarded items affecting their lives.

Gareth Buckland described the area to the rear of Newlands Street as a “third world zone” and called on the Vale Council to act.

He said: “The potential as a health hazard cannot be under-estimated. From my childhood memories, the area concerned was one that was used by children as a play area, by workers returning home from the docks and their work and by those, fortunate enough to own a car, to put their cars in their garages; today, it is nothing short of a third-world slum area.

“The Vale of Glamorgan Council is culpable in many ways and no more so in addressing the condition of the lanes at the rear of the houses, particularly the lane between Richard Street and Newlands Street, once a play area for boys with marbles and bicycles and girls with prams and dolls. To say that I am disgusted with the conditions behind the street would be a mild reflection of my thoughts.”

He said the lane surface had not been replaced for many years and was littered with dog excrement, broken toys, empty beer cans and bottles, discarded furniture and general building rubble.

Vale Council director of visible services, Miles Punter said: “The lane has now been cleaned to return it to the acceptable level of cleanliness. The council will as part of our normal working practice continue to monitor this and all other rear lanes and clean them within the requirements of the Code of Practice and resources available."

He added an assessment of the surface would be made following the complaint and the lane would be considered within future works programmes subject to priority requirements and budgets available.

He said arrangements had been made for the spraying of the grass/weeds within the lane to assist with improving its general appearance and a further spray treatment will be carried out in late September.

Meanwhile, Beverly Conham, who recently had open heart surgery, has complained about the dog mess in the Avocet Court area, but has been told it is private property and that she should keep watch and make note of incidents as they occur.

The 63-year-old grandmother said: “We have always had a problem with the amount of garbage and faceas in the street, but nobody does anything about it.”

Newydd housing association chief executive, Paul Roberts, said the association encouraged its tenants to be responsible dog owners and pick up any mess left after their animals.

He said: “If we are informed of instances of dog fouling we will work in partnership with the council’s environmental health department and the dog warden to tackle the problem as they have the power to issue fixed penalty notices for dog fouling.”

Vale Council visible services director Miles Punter said the authority was responsible for cleansing the adopted road and pathways around Avocet Court and would inspect and remove any dog faeces found on the public highways. Any grassed areas around Avocet Court, excluding the playgrounds off Kingsland Crescent, was in private ownership.

He added: “Thankfully Independent surveys by Keep Wales Tidy show that dog fouling is not a major problem in the Vale and that not only are the levels of dog fouling falling compared with previous years but compare favourably with the all Wales average for this form of litter. A recent Keep Wales Tidy survey of streets surveyed in the Castleland area showed it to be of an acceptable standard of cleansing with a low level of dog fouling evident.”