CARELESS dog owners in Neasham could be named and shamed unless they clear up after their pets.

The threat has come from the angry chairman of the parish council, Coun John Weighell.

He had to take on the unenviable job of clearing up dog dirt on Teesway this week, before a visit by Northumbria in Bloom judges.

He told Monday's meeting: "It is the first round of judging tomorrow.

"Dog fouling is getting as bad as ever here and I have five names of people who, if they don't start using the bins again, I will give to the dog warden."

Last November, the council celebrated the fact it had at last been given two dog waste bins for Teesway.

It was said then that they would help cope with the large number of people who went to Neasham to exercise their dogs.

But Coun Weighell said: "The culprits are the minority. People coming in from town were blamed for the mess, but they are the ones who are most conscientious."

Each end of the village was particularly bad, he saids, with one stretch "so horrendous" nobody could walk on it.

"I have to walk around the village tomorrow with two lady judges. It is a disgrace. We campaigned all those years to get dog bins and when we got two of them everyone cleaned up - and a lot still do.

"It was a success at first but a minority is getting lackadaisical."

Coun Dorothy Taylor agreed: "We should name and shame them."