I am sick to death of having to make detours around great piles of equine faeces on our pavements and cycleways – particularly on South Newsham Road, The Avenue and Links Road.

The riders ignore the mess their mounts have made and on one occasion, when I remonstrated with a rider for not clearing up, I was laughed at and told not to be ridiculous.

There were three of them so I chose not to take the matter further at that time.

The question is, why are there bye-laws covering excrement from dogs but not from horses? That is just as disgusting and, because there is more of it, it takes longer to disperse.

In Bruges, in Belgium, I've seen horses wearing a sort of poop-catcher that prevents the offending material from reaching the ground – I don't know if that is the answer here but I think, if enough people make riders aware that horse fouling is unacceptable, then they might just follow the example of today's dog owners and collect the muck in a plastic bag. And then they could recycle it by putting it on the rhubarb!


KEVIN BRADLEY
Blyth.

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