Town councillors have this week turned down plans for a £14,000 project that would have seen Burnham-On-Sea become one of the first towns in the UK to tackle dog fouling with a high-tech scheme.
At a meeting of the Town Council’s Policy and Finance Committee last night (Monday), councillors voted to recommend that the project not proceed.
As first reported here earlier this month, GeoVation, a project run in conjunction with the Ordnance Survey, put forward proposals that would have seen the introduction of a smartphone app informing dog owners where waste bins are sited in the town and also introduce an anaerobic digestion system to turn dog waste into renewable energy.
But Cllr Dennis Davey told Monday’s meeting: “I don’t see there is enough value for tax payers with these proposals. I would support it if we could pass on the costs to Sedgemoor District Council.”
Cllr Ken Smout said: “It would be a mammoth price to pay. I’m disappointed with the proposals put forward. I’d hoped they would be more practical and affordable.”
And Cllr Helen Groves added: “I find it hard to find sufficient benefit to justifty such a huge spend.”
Town Clerk Denise Emery said: “We don’t have £14,000 in our budget to spend on a project like this – it would have to come from the council’s reserves.”
Councillors voted in favour of recommending that the Town Council takes no further part in the project. A final decision will be taken in early July.
Burnham would have become one of just four locations across the UK using the scheme if it were to have gone ahead, joining Aberdeen, Suffolk and Kingston upon Thames.
Earlier this year, the Town Council’s plans to lift a dog ban on part of Burnham’s beach during the summer months was scrapped after public opposition, as we reported here.
