Dog owners who let their pets foul in public will be secretly photographed and then prosecuted in a town-wide crackdown.

Snap-happy Wallingford town councillor John Beeton will snoop about focusing on owners whose pooches do their dirty deeds.

His evidence may be used by the council to bring prosecutions that can lead to fines of up to £1,000 for owners.

"I have got the right to confront people and I am not afraid to do the nasty bit," said Mr Beeton, 44, of Borough Avenue, Wallingford.

"If someone's animal has just fouled in a park I will be quite prepared to confront them. I see the only way to make people take notice is to attempt prosecutions.

"I feel I have got the mandate to be doing this. It's the type of thing that I was elected for."

Mr Beeton's first step in his clean-up campaign will be to put up posters. This will be followed by verbal warnings and then prosecutions. He will even prowl the streets at night taking photographs of errant dog owners. He says the crackdown is needed because dog fouling is a health hazard, as well as irritating.

"The poster campaign will try to educate people first. Then I will warn people verbally, explaining that they could be fined up to £1,000 and that, later on, we will be attempting to prosecute people."

He added: "Wallingford has got a lot of very nice open spaces. People do walk their dogs at night in the dark, so I am going to go out at night with a flash on my camera.

"And I'm already looking to see what dog owners are doing. I don't want to stop people using the parks with their dogs, but if they want to use them as dog-walking areas, they have got to be respectable dog owners.

"It's about time someone tries to tackle it seriously. It's not going to be easy, though."

The power to prosecute has been delegated by district councils to town and parish councils, and Mr Beeton said he would act as a witness to any prosecutions.

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