THE dog mess menace has spread to St Peter Port.

‘We’ve got problems here in the Water Lanes,’ said Les Ozouets resident Mike Luxon. Mr Luxon, 72, has lived in the area for 33 years and was in charge of the island’s sewage-pumping facilities for three decades. He said his neighbourhood faced similar problems to Vale resident Roy Donaldson, who has raised concerns about discarded bags of dog mess which keep turning up in his douit.

Mr Luxon said that a dog owner repeatedly emptied pet mess from a plastic bag into the stream.

‘To drop it into a stream from where people get drinking water is irresponsible,’ he said.

Mr Luxon said the stream near his house was in the catchment area and he feared that it could become contaminated.

Guernsey Water sent its water-protection team to the site but under water pollution laws, no further action could be taken because there was no evidence of gross pollution.

Director of water services Andrew Redhead said: ‘Disposing of rubbish in such a way is a community problem, just as dropping litter in the street is, and people should have regard for the environment we live in.’

He said Guernsey Water investigated and took action when and where appropriate in matters of general pollution.

‘Although this one-off incident did not pose any threat to the high quality of the island’s water supply, throwing items into our streams does create another problem – that of the risk to drainage and pumping stations,’ said Mr Redhead. He added that should items such as plastic bags reach any of the pumping stations and get lodged in the machinery, it could cause flooding to nearby houses and result in interruptions to the service.

Mr Luxon said the incident had been more than a one-off.

He added that some dog walkers disposed of their pets’ mess on top of a nearby telephone junction box, in easy reach of children.

He said installing dog-waste bins in the area could help, but added that these would be at risk of vandalism.