RYEDALE may once again be on course to have a dog warden - a council officer dedicated to solving issues around dog fouling, stray dogs, owner education and dangerous dogs.

The former dog warden left Ryedale District Council (RDC) during the Towards 2020 financial restructuring which saw a large number of roles cut from the council.

But at a meeting of full council on Thursday, new Conservative Cllr Nathan Garbutt Moore moved that the council look at that decision in order to “fully understand its implications”, and also to assess whether Ryedale should re-instate the position of a dedicated dog warden.

Cllr Garbutt Moore said the issue had been mentioned to him on a number of occasions by his constituents.

“The T2020 restructuring here left the district without a dog warden and I think this council - particularly the new members who are here and that’s quite a few of us - need to understand the implications of that,” he said.

He said he met with the community team at the authority, and that on top of their lengthy job descriptions, the six community officers have had to deal with a large number of dog-related cases since the dog warden post went.

“Outside the council,” he added, “Ryedale Dog Rescue have reported that the charity is under a lot of pressure, having to pick up the workload that the dog warden used to do and the community officers don’t have time to do.

“Malton does have the title of being the dog-friendliest town in the United Kingdom. It’s something we should be proud of.

“But I think a lot of people from outside the district would be surprised to learn that we don’t have a dog warden.”

Cllr John Clark of the Liberal Party said that the decision to implement the cost-cutting restructuring in the first place had been driven by the Conservative party.

“In your election literature you were complaining about dog fouling in Ryedale, and saying that you as a party were going to do something about it,” he said.

“We were pointing out that it was, in fact, your group that had voted to get rid of the dog warden.

“We opposed T2020 but the vast majority of council supported doing it.”

But he also welcomed the motion to look at the impact of the loss and its potential re-instatement.

“A new councillor puts a motion down in their first meeting - we’ve got someone here we’re going to be working with,” he added.

The matter was automatically referred to the council’s policy and resources committee to look into.